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How Does Liam O Flaherty Build Suspense In The Sniper

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“If we don’t end war, war will end us”. This quote was said by Herbert George Wells and I think it relates to this story because war destroys what people love most and war destroys the world we live in. This is shown when the main Sniper flips over a body only to see the dead body of his brother after the dangerous confrontation. In “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty there is a Irish sniper and he is in a dangerous situation where he battles an enemy sniper in a city setting that seems sad and gloomy. Liam O’Flaherty chose to use author's craft techniques to add to the story. He uses the techniques of vivid description to build suspense, dialogue to get reader’s predicting and revealing actions to raise the stakes. These techniques made the story suspenseful and interesting to read. It also made the reader feel like he was in this small battle between the two snipers and make him think about what is going to happen next. …show more content…

He used this when the main character would move from one spot to another and it was described in a way that made the story very suspenseful which drew the reader in even more to the story. The sniper “rolled over the roof to a chimney stack in the rear, and slowly drew himself up behind it, until his eyes were level with the top of the parapet.” The reason O’Flaherty used this description was to show the danger and high pace combatical situation he was in at the moment against an enemy sniper that was most likely doing the same thing as the main character. “Taking off his cap, [the sniper] placed it over the muzzle of his rifle. Then he pushed the rifle slowly up...until the cap was visible...almost immediately, there was a report and a bullet pierced the center of the cap.” This makes the already suspenseful situation worse. The

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