Action Without Thought In 'The Sniper'

Within Liam O’Flaherty’s short story, “The Sniper”, there are two literary devices that greatly impact the meaning of the story. These two literary devices are irony and mood, and together they show the reader how difficult war can be and how it can pull friends and families apart. While reading the text, the reader can feel how tired, lethargic, yet exciting war can be. On page 1, paragraph 3, the sniper was “eating a sandwich hungrily” because he “had eaten nothing since morning”. In this paragraph, readers can feel how the thrill of war can overcome a person, taking over their actions, emotions, and feelings. Irony also plays a big part in “The Sniper”, helping support the meaning of the story through the theme. At the end of the story in paragraphs 25-27, the sniper decides to look at the body of the man he had just killed, and to his surprise, he finds that the man he had just shot dead was his brother.

Imagine the life of a person who cannot eat or sleep when their body needs them to. Imagine him not having the small luxuries people take for granted every day. Instead, this person lives every waking moment on the famous quote “Kill, or be killed.” The identity of this person is a soldier. Liam O’Flaherty, a World War 1 veteran, takes his experiences of war and incorporates them into his short story “The Sniper.” This piece of literature discusses the topic of war and the internal and external conflicts of the people consumed by war.

Liam O'Flaherty uses similes to enhance the story “The Sniper” by creating mental images and connecting the reader’s experiences to quotes in the story.  In the beginning of the story, a civil war between the Free Staters and the Republicans is taking place.  A Republican sniper is resting on a roof at night time, and looks over the streets of Dublin.  The author states, “Here and there through the city machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms” (213).  The shots are fired into the darkness in random bursts, breaking the silence of the night.  O'Flaherty then uses a simile to compare the sounds of the shots with dogs barking on lone farms.  This can allow the reader to be able to

“Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.” President John Fitzgerald Kennedy said to the United Nations General Assembly, on September 25th, 1961. This quote is saying that the killing of soldiers in war will soon destroy all. This relates to both stories because both soldiers regretted killing someone. In O’Flaherty’s “The Sniper” and Hardy’s “The Man He Killed” both works use plot, irony, and theme to portray the idea that war causes you to kill those you care or may have cared about.

O'Flaherty is making a point about conflict; the specific point he is making about conflict is that war reveals how conflict leads to dividing people instead solving an issue or bringing people together. O'Flaherty states, "The sniper lay for a long time nursing his wounded arm and planning his escape" (Line 65). The mentioning of fixing his wounds and making plans to escape show that through the entire war and the idea that this will solve a problem, everyone is resulting in killing and violence to get what he or she wants. The idea of the man vs. man conflict is creating a dividing line between sides through the violence instead of coming to a solution. O'Flaherty also mentions, "Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his

If you knew who you were shooting at, would you pull the trigger? In the story called ¨The Sniper¨ by Liam O'Flaherty, a man, who is referred to as ´the sniper´ is about a man who is in a war in Dublin. The first thing that happens is when he shoots a man in a turret and a woman. Then he gets shot in the arm. Then he shoots an enemy sniper. He goes and finds out that the enemy sniper he shot was his brother. I believe the theme of the story ¨The Sniper¨ by Liam O'Flaherty is that fear can lead to destructive decisions.

“Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.” John Fitzgerald Kennedy stated to the United Nation General Assembly on September 25, 1961. War causes people to turn on people so we need to stop it, before no one is left. There are many similarities yet differences between “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty and “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy by conveying them through three topics, plot, irony, and theme.

”There are three types of people in this world: sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs.”The sheep are the good but naive people and are therefore vulnerable, the wolves are the evil ones who prey on these good ‘helpless’ people, and the sheepdogs are the strong one, “the rare breed who live to confront the wolf”, who are there to protect the good people – the sheep. This is the movies central moral metaphor, and it is seen all throughout the film, a classic battle between good and evil.

In Liam O’Flaherty’s The Sniper, the main character, a sniper, is in the middle of a civil war in Dublin, Ireland. It is his assigned duty to assassinate anyone on the the other side of the war, no matter who they are. This creates a huge conflict, considering that the sniper ends up killing his brother. This supports the central theme that war is cruel, and this can be supported by the craft elements of the dialogue used and the setting of the story.

He heard the drop of the body, even over the echo of the gunshot ringing throughout the terrain. His curiosity peaked. He wanted to look over to make sure he confirmed the kill, but he knew that if he looked he could be killed by another sniper off in the distance. Instead of looking, he flees when the time is right. Soon after he made it home.

Through the usage of graphical features used by Xan Brooks, it reinforces the idea of the portrayal of killing shown in the American sniper is morally unacceptable and is not accurate. At the top of the film review is a photograph of ‘Chris Kyle’ portrayed by Bradley Cooper. In the image, Chris is sitting in a military aircraft, facing a rectangle object covered with the United States flag symbolising independence and liberty. The object is presumably a coffin holding a comrade lost in the brutality of war. The position of the coffins show the reader how with war, death is never far behind - this is shown by how the two coffins look as though they are following each other. The second coffin is not in line with the first one and is more shifted

The third person single vision point of view of a tough sniper fighting a civil war enemy, in Liam O’Flaherty’s “The Sniper,” plays with the reader’s emotions throughout the story. He employs third person single vision point of view to tell the sniper’s intense adventure from an outside narrator who has access to the mind of the protagonist. O’Flaherty chose third person single vision POV because distancing the reader is the only way to develop a tough protagonist that the reader can be intimate with, taking into account his limited intellectual skills.

War has been occurring for over thousands of years, and has claimed a devastating amount of lives throughout the centuries. In “Just Lather, That’s All”, written by Hernando Tellez and “The Sniper”, created by Liam O’ Flahery you can see two stories that are based around a war environment. Evident in these short stories are the similarities and differences both protagonist share. The first similarity that is shown is that the act of killing isn’t an easy concept for them.

In the short story The Sniper, Liam O’Flaherty recounts a story of an Irish sniper fighting for the republican army during the Irish Civil War. He wrote this short story based on his experience with time at war. Liam o’flaherty illustrates how war can reduce the value of family and human lives, betrayal, and suspense. In this essay I will be discussing these major themes as well as comparing this story to books such as The Odyssey and others containing similar themes. This essay also will discuss how suspense is used in Liam O’Flaherty’s The Sniper.

The demonstration of the narrator's imagination unconsciously leads his own thoughts to grow into a chaotic mess that ultimately ends in a death. By murdering, it’s his own way of finding peace. He is portrayed as being a sadist, sick man with an unnatural obsession for