“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.
A similarity between O’Flaherty’s “The Sniper” and Hardy’s “The Man He Killed” is that the protagonist are both soldiers. For instance, “Then when the smoke cleared he peered across and uttered a cry of joy. His enemy had been hit”(O’Flaherty 208). In other words, soldiers are happy when killing their enemies, especially
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For instance, “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother's face”(O’Flaherty 208). In other words, looking into his own brothers face caused pain and tragedy and tells how war can tear family apart. Furthermore, “Was out of work -- had sold his traps -- No other reason why”(Hardy 15-16). This causes pain and suffering because the soldier had no money and had no other way to make money so he had to go into war. The difference involving theme in both works is that in “The Sniper” it turned brother against brother and in “The Man He Had Killed” it turned possible friends and friends against each other. In “ The Sniper” it states, “He wondered did he know him. Perhaps he had been in his own company before the split in the army”(O’Flaherty 208). This states, he did not know he had killed his own brother, this proves that war can turn brother against brother. Another reason, “Had he and I but met by some old ancient inn, we should have sat us down to wet right many a nipperkin”(Hardy 1-4). In other words, if he and the man had met they could have sat down and became friends and have many beers, showing that war can turn possible friends against each other. In conclusion, war causes you to turn on people that are important to you or could turn out to be important and tears people
Even though nothing should come between people, war breaks ties and relationships with people that normally don’t ever break. War splits families, friends, and even countries. The topic of family is different in both short stories, but yet it plays an important role in each story. In “The Sniper”, the man who is the sniper actually shoots his brother during the Irish civil war. The story reads, “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face”(The Sniper 1).
However, they both illustrate how war can quite change
The result of any conflict should never be war. Separation and heartbreak are all devastating effects of warfare. Additionally, the brutality of war is certainly immense. Most of all, a war can be cruelly unfair to both sides of a battle. Collier and Collier, authors of My Brother Sam is Dead, essentially agree that war is fruitless.
War is a conflictive topic because it can be both positive and negative depending on the situation. For example, during the American Revolution, Americans fought a war with Great Britain to gain their independence and freedom. On the other hand, many innocent people were killed because the dead pay the living’s debts. In the novel My Brother Sam is Dead, Tim has to make a decision about which side he believes is right, leaving him caught between his brother and his father. However, in the end, Tim chooses neutrality based on the injustices of Jerry, Sam, and Life’s deaths.
What they do not look at: “Psychological effect of the war” War is something that has much more than physical effects. It is a burden on those involved on and off the battlefield. Being part of a war can affect you emotionally, mentally and physically. Even though soldiers are fighting for “just causes” was is an all-around negative event.
It is assumed that no one actually enlists with the sole purpose of killing people. This next short story is entitled “The Man I Killed.” Right off the bat, O’Brien goes into extremely gruesome details of the body of the boy he just killed. He describes the wounds for half of a paragraph. In this story, the reader can feel the guilt in the author as he stands on the trail, thinking about this boy’s life before he brutally murdered him.
Introduction The book “On Killing” by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman discusses the taboo topic of killing and how humans are affected by it. The author does this with the help of testimonials coming from veterans who served in wars such as World War I, World War II, and Vietnam. The book looks at the act of killing and discusses some of the psychological methods that have been introduced to make soldiers effective killers as well as some psychological effects soldiers face in battle and when they return home. The purpose of this book is “to not only uncover the dynamics of killing, but to help pierce the taboo of killing that prevented the men in his book and many millions like them from sharing their pain” (pg.XXXV).
The brutality of war has scarred and devastated the world since the beginning of time, and has drastically changed over the course of history. Many precious lives of loved ones have been lost to war and continue to as fighting rages on. Famous Revolutionary War hero, George Washington, stated “My first wish [as president] is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth” (George Washington Quotes). General Washington witnessed the terror of war while fighting for independence from Great Britain. Against his wishes, war and violence continued as history went on.
Although the soldier he killed was an enemy soldier, instead of vilifying him he was able to humanize the man. O’Brien was able to describe the physical appearance of the soldier and imagine her life before war. The author was able to portray an emotional connection and made the line between friend and enemy almost vanish. This was able to reveal the natural beauty of shared humanity even in the context of war’s horror. O’Brien is able to find the beauty in the midst of this tragic and horrible event.
In the short story “Ambush” by Tim O’Brien he tells us his first hand encounters with war and how it has impacted his everyday life. In the short story he starts out by saying, “ When she was nine, my daughter, Kathleen asked if I had ever killed anyone.” (O’Brien 811) The quote stated above shows how war can have an impact on people that are directly involved with the war. When we are at war does
The first thing we notice is the emotions through the narrator's trauma. In “The Man I Killed” Tim O’Brien the main character wanted to contain his emotions by adding more positive emotions. You can see the negative when the soldier is constantly looking at the man and standing there shaken,
This violence was brought about by assumption, when really they were brothers all along. The sniper realizes, and regrets his actions at the end. War and conflict is about protecting loved ones, and about defending your rights and liberties, but we must be careful not to let these conflicts blind our minds with assumption, or violence will destroy
In the short story The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty, a main theme is that war is cruel. This is supported by many details within the story. War makes people do things that they normally wouldn’t do, mostly because it is their duty to protect what they believe in or their country. For example, the
“His hand trembles with eagerness. Pressing his lips together, he took a deep breath through his nostrils and fired” (208). This quote is showing the nerves and anxiety the sniper had received from out tricking his own brother. The last example in “The Man He Killed” the war had
In the text it says, “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face.” and early on in the story he wonders if he knew the other sniper, and ironically it was someone he knew very well (4). He is caught up in annihilating the enemy, he only stops to think about who the other sniper is. O’Flaherty uses irony to show how the sniper ends up killing his own brother and only after he shoots him he wonders if he knew him. In addition to the irony, O’Flaherty also uses description to develop this idea of action without thought.