preview

Theme Of The Sniper

Decent Essays

In the anti-war short story "The Sniper" written by Liam O Flaherty, a Republican sniper embraces his rifle and conceals on the roof top without a sound, waiting to kill his enemies. The sniper accidentally gives away his location when he lights up a cigarette and exposes himself to the enemy sniper on the opposite roof. The two snipers from two conflicting sides then faces each other off through an innovative war; using both their shooting skills and intelligence. Subsequently, the Republican sniper pulls out a brilliant plan and he successfully shoots out a deadly bullet to the enemy sniper. After the line of life and death, the Republican sniper decides to identify the enemy sniper's face; he slowly turns the dead body around and finds …show more content…

In addition, when the Republican drops to the ground after his injury, he leans against a parapet, which can also be explained as a protective barrier that the sniper uses to hide from all the cruelty and brutal faces of war. All these images demonstrate isolation, desolation and the brutality formed by the war and the images are formed by intention to show the readers the identifiable harmful impacts that a war can carry.

The author not only uses the settings to intensify the evilness of war; but he also introduces several scenes of situation irony into the story to further explain the downside effects of war. For instance, when the Republican sniper riskily lights up a cigarette, the light will glow and expose his location on the rooftop. The irony unpredictably occurs when an old lady spy points at the sniper's location to his enemy. This is ironic because no one expects an old and weak lady with trembling legs would secretly be a spy. This forces the Republican sniper to kill the lady instantly because otherwise, he will be killed by his enemies. Another ironic situation takes place when the Free-stater soldier arrives at the O'Connell bridge in an armoured truck; a tank-like transportation machine, and yet he is killed by the Republican sniper when he peeks out the car window with half of his body outside. This is ironic because it is surprising that someone would be that imprudent when knowing that there is a sniper watching his every

Get Access