Liam O 'Flaherty's The Sniper'

Liam O’ Flaherty’s realistic fiction story, “The Sniper” takes place in Dublin, Ireland, where there is a civil war taking place. The main character whose name is unrevealed, is a sniper for the republican side of the civil war. Throughout the story the main character views the war differently than how he will towards the end. By the narrator’s use of description and perspective, Liam O’ Flaherty creates the lesson of how violence harms everyone.

Violence shows throughout the story as a central issue impacting all characters. Since the main character is a sniper in a civil war, he harms others and he is the reason of the violence. One example of this is, the sniper chooses to take part in the war. He is deciding everyday to wake up in the morning and potentially kill

In the passage the author chooses to use the third-person unlimited perspective. By doing this the narrator is able to tell the readers what the main character is thinking and feeling at all times. Also the narrator can use that point of view to give a mental picture of the violence occurring. For example, in the passage it says, ”When the sniper reached the laneway on the street level, he felt a sudden curiosity as to the identity of the enemy sniper whom he had killed.” Throughout this quote of the passage the author uses his unlimited perspective to show the “feeling of curiosity” that falls on the main character as he figures out who he killed. During this example, it is useful to be able to use the perspective that Flaherty chose, because the author is able to fully explain how violence is being shown not only from the narrator’s eyes, but through the eyes of the main sniper. Therefor, by doing this Liam O’ Flaherty is using different perspectives to show the central issue in the passage, violence harms everyone, in an abundant amount of