In 'The Sniper'; Liam O' Flaherty suggest the horror of war not only by presenting its physical dangers but also by showing its psychological effects. The story takes place in Dublin around the beleaguered Four Courts in the middle of the city where gunfire of heavy guns, machine guns, and rifles break the silence around the sniper because of a civil war that is especially dangerous because the enemy looked similar to yourself. The sniper is on the roof in a vulnerable situation because there is no cover, no place to hide. Besides that it's June around the twilight hour when it is fading into night and when the smallest amount of light attracted attention to the enemy.
The bullets fired also make the danger of the sniper's location clear. When he lights his cigarette, almost immediately a bullet is shot against the parapet of the roof. Just as he raised his himself cautiously over the railing of the roof another bullet whizzed by him, just missing his head. Soon he sees a tank commander and a women informer pointing out his location on the roof, he first takes out the tank commander, followed by the old lady that is giving the information. Suddenly from the opposite side there is a flutter of bullets that come from the opposite side of the street.
The psychological effects on the sniper suggest the horror of war. The sniper's feeling of excitement shows a lack of concern for other people. The sniper's fanaticism is known when it mentioned that he had not eaten because he was so excited to be there. Although when the armored car pulled up, the very sound of the engine and the color of the 'gray monster'; stuck fear in his heart. When the sniper was aiming at the other sniper his hand trembled with eagerness, proving his lack of concern for others. When he finally shot, he uttered a shout of joy releasing his 'lust for battle';.
Finally the horror of the war is made clear because the sniper can only think of other people as the enemy. Before he lights his cigarette he wonders if the 'enemy'; is watching.
In “The Sniper” the conflict is man vs man, which means main character is tasked with killing his enemy, but it proves to be quite a challenge. Even though there were many challenges the sniper followed through with his job and persevered even after he was shot in the arm. Wanting to kill his enemy, stay alive, and be one step closer to ending the war was his main goals. Being brave, he took off his hat, placed it on his gun, and raised it above the edge of the roof. Instantly the enemy shot at it and the sniper, pretending to be dead, waited until the enemy got up for him to shoot him. He did some quick thinking and, with determination, handled the conflict quite well.
In the story, “The Sniper”, The sniper showed that he was an intelligent soldier. In the beginning, after Being shot by the enemy sniper the sniper took care of his wound and was able to compose himself and think of a plan. Thinking he had won the battle after the snipers successful decoy the enemy sniper dropped his guard and the second he did the sniper
middle of paper ... ...is “Christ, I’m hit.” The turmoil ‘overpowers’ the life of a soldier. The gory sights in the city of Dublin, torn apart and paralysed with War and fear is depicted by people bleeding in the gutters till they die and rapid gunfire everywhere, followed by a deafening silence. Killing is done in cold blood and even then, the sniper maintains calm.
Murder is a reprobate action that is an inevitable part of war. It forces humans into immoral acts, which can manifest in the forms such as shooting or close combat. The life of a soldier is ultimately decided from the killer, whether or not he follows through with his actions. In the short stories The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty and Just Lather, That's All by Hernando Téllez, the killer must decide the fate of their victims under circumstantial constraints. The two story explore the difference between killing at a close proximity compared to killing at a distance, and how they affect the killer's final decision.
Liam O’Flaherty’s realistic fiction story, “The Sniper,” takes place in Dublin, Ireland, where there is a civil war waging between Republicans and Free Staters. The Republican sniper, who is the main character in the story, is fighting in the civil war for the Republican organization. There are numerous amounts of people who are attempting to assassinate the sniper because of his organization, and his enemies are located all around him waiting patiently until they gain their chance. The Republican sniper, however, leaps before he looks most times, thus leading to severe consequences throughout the story. By using description and suspense, O’Flaherty creates the lesson that actions, without thought, will lead to consequences.
As we saw earlier, both authors of both stories were born in different places and did many things. “The Sniper” sets in Dublin, Ireland, during a time of a bitter civil war. It was a war between the Republicans, which wanted Ireland to become ...
In the story “The sniper”, the sniper face an external conflict and an internal conflict. His external conflict was the enemy sniper. He saw an old woman heading towards the man in the turret. The old woman was pointing at the sniper. Sniper thought
While on this mission, when confronted with a traumatic event, instead of a typical reaction like crying, the men would resort to violence to express their pain. For example, when Curt Lemon, Rat Kiley’s best friend, stepped on a mine and was killed, Rat took his agony and suffering out on a water buffalo, slowly and painfully destroying the animal’s life. Rat’s reaction shows that the war itself had begun to consume him and finally did when he was forced to shoot himself in the foot because he could not deal with the aimless hiking anymore.... ... middle of paper ...
As a socialistic society we live in we find ourselves in positions were conflicts arise between friends or family. 'The Sniper'; was written by Liam O ' Flaherty to express a subtle yet powerful opinion on such a conflict. With references this essay will analyse the short story bringing to light the structure used to contribute to the theme.
In conclusion, the Sniper is, interestingly, a complete contradiction in himself. He is both experienced and amateur, cold and emotional, lusting after war and hating it, self-assured and vulnerable, and logical and mad. This stark paradox may create much of the inner conflict that goes on within the Sniper, and also reflects the outer conflict of the Irish war- a war where both sides are essentially opposing parts of the same whole.
The mood of the story is dark and weary. In this scene the sky is gloomy and there are Republican and Free Starter soldiers fighting in the Irish Civil war, “The long June twilight faded into the night. Dublin lay enveloped in darkness but for the dim light of the moon that shone through the fleecy clouds.. machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically” (O’Flaherty 1). Although the mood of the story is creepy and dim for the most part, it is silent with the sudden sounds of guns firing. As the story progresses, the sniper’s emotions begin reflecting on his actions. He begins to feel guilt and remorse for killing someone and the mood shifts to tension and violence.
Birdy, who is a new soldier, fears that he will end up dead during the war. He said,“Then I realized that it was the noise, the constant booming, that just filled my guts with a trembling sensation. I knew if I heard the boom I was safe because whatever had exploded hadn't hit me. But it was the idea that at any moment it could be all over, that I could be dead or lie in the sand twisting in agony, that filled me with a terror that I hadn't known before. Terror. It wasn't just being scared. It was a feeling that was taking me over. I knew it but I hoped no one else saw it,” (Myers 71). This description of Birdy's fear develops the idea that in Iraq, surviving emotionally during the war is important to be alive. Walter Dean Myers wants the reader
Usually when someone is murdered, people expect the murderer to feel culpable. This though, is not the case in war. When in war, a soldier is taught that the enemy deserves to die, for no other reason than that they are the nation’s enemy. When Tim O’Brien kills a man during the Vietnam War, he is shocked that the man is not the buff, wicked, and terrifying enemy he was expecting. This realization overwhelms him in guilt. O’Brien’s guilt has him so fixated on the life of his victim that his own presence in the story—as protagonist and narrator—fades to the black. Since he doesn’t use the first person to explain his guilt and confusion, he negotiates his feelings by operating in fantasy—by imagining an entire life for his victim, from his boyhood and his family to his feeling about the war and about the Americans. In The Man I Killed, Tim O’Brien explores the truth of The Vietnam War by vividly describing the dead body and the imagined life of the man he has killed to question the morality of killing in a war that seems to have no point to him.
The setting to “The Sniper” plays a vital role in understanding the meaning O’Flaherty was trying to convey. The main character is sitting on a rooftop near O’Connell Bridge in Dublin Ireland. During the Irish Civil War, the river that flowed beneath the bridge, was the dividing line in the Battle of Dublin. From the beginning, when civilians watched the opening attacks from atop the bridge, to the end, when it shook from the final bombing that forced the Republicans to surrender, the bridge was a key factor to the end result of the war. (Black,
In the story The Sniper. The sniper develops insensitivity to death during the war. When he kills the old woman, she’s trying to run away and isn’t really a threat. He even “utters a cry of joy” when he finally shoots the enemy sniper. This shows how war can get people caught up in the cat-and-mouse “game” aspect of it and forget what they’re actually doing-killing people. People get so caught up in the “game” that they don’t think about the repercussions for their actions.