The Sniper Theme

Liam O’Flaherty’s realistic fiction story, “The Sniper” takes place in Dublin, Ireland during a civil war. In the story the Republican Sniper is assigned a dangerous, life or death mission. On the parapet of a roof he sits still, with his rifle by his side and a job of killing his enemy on the other side of the street. After achieving his goal the Sniper realizes what he has done. When he checks to see who he has killed, it is his brother. In this critical part of the story, the author shows the theme of, actions have consequences, while also using 2 crafts moves such as description and foreshadow. Throughout the story, the author intertwines the theme actions have consequences. This is shown in the text by the Sniper’s spur of the

This is shown in the text when the Sniper describes how aiming for his target will be a hard shot. This is because of how the Sniper was shot in the arm, and the distance from where he is to the other side of the street. When the Sniper did fire his gun at the enemy after deceiving him of thinking that he was dead, the bullet did hit his target. Once everything is done and he has achieved his goal he checks to see if he knew the other sniper he killed. Finally when going to see who he has shot, the Sniper looks “into his brother face.” But before revealing that the Sniper kills his own brother the author puts in clues, such as when the Sniper looks to see who he killed because of his curiosity, this foreshadows that the Sniper will most likely know who he killed. Also the author describes the moves the Sniper takes to trick his enemy into thinking he was dead so he could shoot his target this detailed description gives the reader an understanding of the story. In other words when the author reveals that the Sniper killed his brother it shows that actions have consequences, because the Sniper’s action of ‘killing the enemy’ was actually ‘killing his brother’. By using foreshadow and description, the author shapes the story to form the