Sniper Vs Sniper

History of Darkness “Cranes” is a story that takes place right after the Korean War ended in South Korea just above the 38th parallel in a small village. The main character, named Songsam, left his family and village in the North while his best friend stayed and was forced into the communist party. “The Sniper” is a story about a sniper during the Irish Civil War. The sniper is in a cat and mouse type game with an unknown enemy sniper. “The Sniper”, and “Cranes” are both similar in ways they talk about past wars, and different in the problems the protagonist faces, and how each story ends. Both “Cranes” and “The Sniper” reference horrible, bloody, past wars. Though they are many years apart, they are both from history. “The Sniper”, by Liam O’Flahtery, takes place in 1920 while Ireland was waging civil war. “The Sniper” talks about referencing a past war when it says, “Republicans and Free Staters were waging civil war.” (O’Flahtery, 212). In “Cranes”, by Hwang Sunwon, takes place in the 1950’s in South Korea after the Korean Peninsula was recovering from a

The two stories both end in completely different ways. In “The Sniper” the story ends with the protagonist resolving his conflict, but finding an ugly horror in the fact that the man he killed was his own brother. This is shown in the following passage, “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face.” (O’Flahtery, 215). In “Cranes” the story ends in a much happier way. The story ends with the protagonist freeing his best friend rather than finding something horrible. In “Cranes” the protagonist frees himself from a horror, in “The Sniper” the protagonist discovers a new horror. We can see the protagonist of “Cranes” freeing his friend in this passage, “Only then did Tôkchae catch on. He started crawling among the weeds.” (Sunwon, 227). These are complete polar