Liam O 'Flaherty's Short Story The Sniper'

The intelligent and strategic sniper has to protect his life by killing others, and even though his brother dies because of this he was correct in his decision to kill. The sniper enjoys very much his job and is willing to fight for the republican side,“They were deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death.” (O’flaherty, 2). This shows that the sniper is committed to the job he is required to perform. He knows he is always exposed to death and is never safe, so he always uses his critical thinking and strategic planning to get out of a dangerous situation. The sniper finds himself in a position where it’s either kill or get killed “The sniper lay still for a long time nursing his wounded arm and planning escape…

The time when I was brave is when I save my friend. My friend would always wonder off with his bike and I would have to find him and see if he is ok. Then when I found him and later a car came by from a distance. I ran into my friend and grabbed him with his bike and ran back to the sidewalk. By showing bravery, I helped save my friends life because he was very close to losing it. Bravery could be illustrated by the The Character Connor from ¨Unwind¨ and the IRA sniper from “The Sniper” because they both risk their life in a dangerous situation.

It has been argued that in war there is no winner. I believe this statement to be true. As demonstrated in The Sniper, every side has losses, and some of them were once friends. In The Sniper, the sniper shoots the opposing sniper only to find out, it’s his own brother. During The Irish Civil War many friendships, families and relationships in general were split because of the treaty with England.

In the short story “The Sniper”, Liam O’Flaherty describes the hardships soldiers go through on a daily basis, he explains how important it is to understand the significance of doing what one has to do to survive in a war setting. Similar to the saying “kill or be killed”, a soldier has to disregard their emotions and do things to protect their country that can be detrimental to their social skills, and their overall ability to function normally in society post-war. The way soldiers behave in crisis’ situations can lead to the pernicious well-being of many bystanders and civilians at or near the war site. The author experienced these feelings first hand when he participated in World War I, while his short story takes place in Dublin during the Irish

“War does not determine who is right - only who is left”. This quote was stated by, Bertrand Russell, British author, mathematician, and philosopher. For example, war can tear other people apart from each other. My quote relates to my thesis statement because war can kill other people that might have been in your family or even could've been your friend. In the passage “The Sniper” by Liam, O’Flaherty and the short poem “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy there are many differences and similarities regarding war through the literary devices of plot, irony, and theme.

As dawn breaks among the trees, we set out. There are four of us. At one time we were seven.

The short story, “The Sniper,” was written by Liam O’ Flaherty in 1923. Liam O’ Flaherty was born on Inishmore Island, which is on the western coast of Ireland, on August 28, 1898. O’ Flaherty enlisted in the British Army as a teenager in 1915 and served as a soldier in the First World War. He had suffered from a serious injury due to a bomb explosion while at war. After Liam had returned home from war, he was diagnosed with depression. The message O’ Flaherty was trying to portray was the idea that war does not have boundaries regarding to age, sex, or family ties, and that war can be lonely at times.

Does war affect countries, families, or individuals? “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty and “Cranes” by Hwang Sunwon are two short stories that occurred during Civil War. These stories are very similar but also have differences.

People will face many obstacles in life; they will make them work hard, or they will make them give up. It is their decision if they want to change the path there are going down. With making this choice you need to The story “The Sniper” by Liam O'Flaherty tells the story of a man who has to stay invisible from the eyes of others. However, his intentions all goes south when he decided to take a quick smoke break, and was spotted. The story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell tells the story of Rainsford, a man whose only aspiration in life is hunt. However, he does not just hunt the simple dear no he hunts tigers and other ferocious beast.

When it comes down to politics, people are usually willing to fight tooth and nail for what they believe in, but most people wouldn’t kill a beloved family member, and the Sniper isn’t any different. Even though The Sniper would never yearn to kill his brother, he did, but at the same it was probably the right thing to do when faced with his circumstances. In “The Sniper,” neither the Sniper nor his brother are villains because they both fight for what they believe in and neither side in the Irish Civil War is inherently wrong, but some readers may interpret the brother as being a villain due his willingness to shoot an Irish Republican sniper, which adds to the story because it doesn’t give the reader a distinct feeling of success or failure.

By expressing the thoughts of a sniper in the midst of battle in the vigorous short story “The Sniper,” Liam O’Flaherty accurately exhibits the soldier’s continuous utilization of his skill and experience when under fire. For instance, when an enemy car advances into the street, the sniper “wanted to fire, but he knew it was useless” because he perceives that “his bullets would never pierce the steel” that blankets the tank (O’ Flaherty 213). Rather than dissipating bullets and endangering his life by discovery, the sniper avoids shooting the steel attacker until an enemy materializes into view. In addition to selective gunfire, the assassin, when “a man’s head and shoulders appeared, looking toward the sniper” and a “woman darted toward the

A little-known fact about the Irish Civil War is the number of casualties. Experts estimate that as few as 1,500 people died (Dorney, 2012). While that may not seem like many deaths for a war, it is important to keep in mind that all the dead soldiers are all from the same country. No matter the death toll, war is a waste of valuable human life.

The theme of the story The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty is that killing will never satisfy lust, anger, sadness, or ever give you any sense of wholeness. Another possible theme of the story is that war can turn the best of friends into the worst of enemies. I feel this way because of when in the text it says “The lust of battle died in him. He became bitten by remorse” and “his teeth chattered, he began to gibber to himself, cursing the war, cursing himself, cursing everybody”. This section of the story explains how he feels after seeing his enemy die. This shows how killing will never satisfy any emotions. When he kills it just makes his emotions get worse and worse makes him regret everything more and more. In last paragraph of the story it

Liam O’Flaherty was an Irish author that wrote short stories that had a mix of brutal naturalism, psychological analysis, poetry, and biting satire (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica). He wrote many short stories that got readers to think in a different way to solve what is going on in the story. One of his many short stories, The Sniper, is one of his most popular and most abstract pieces of his work. Knowing this, The Sniper is a perfect candidate for a rhetorical analysis paper.

We always read or hear stories about the war and they are usually sad or really exciting. How would you like to live the rest of your life with the guilt of shooting a soldier on purpose, but even worse finding out its your brother? In The Sniper this soldier is doing his best to protect the city they were stationed in from getting blown into pieces, but in the mist of everything he thinks he is doing something right, but it turns out to be a tragic ending.