The long June twilight faded into night. Dublin lay enveloped in darkness but for the dim light of the moon that shone through fleecy clouds, casting a pale light as of approaching dawn over the streets and the dark waters of the Liffey. Around the beleaguered Four Courts the heavy guns roared. Here and there through the city, machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms. Republicans and Free Staters were waging civil war.
On a rooftop near O'Connell Bridge, a Republican sniper lay watching. Beside him lay his rifle and over his shoulders was slung a pair of field glasses. His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic. They were deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death.
He was eating a sandwich hungrily. He had eaten nothing since morning. He had been too excited to eat. He finished the sandwich, and, taking a flask of whiskey from his pocket, he took a short drought. Then he returned the flask to his pocket. He paused for a moment, considering whether he should risk a smoke. It was dangerous. The flash might be seen in the darkness, and there were enemies watching. He decided to take the risk.
Placing a cigarette between his lips, he struck a match, inhaled the smoke hurriedly and put out the light. Almost immediately, a bullet flattened itself against the parapet of the roof. The sniper took another whiff and put out the cigarette. Then he swore softly and crawled away to the left.
Cautiously he raised himself and peered over the parapet. There was a flash and a bullet whizzed over his head. He dropped immediately. He had seen the flash. It came from the opposite side of the street.
He rolled over the roof to a chimney stack in the rear, and slowly drew himself up behind it, until his eyes were level with the top of the parapet. There was nothing to be seen--just the dim outline of the opposite housetop against the blue sky. His enemy was under cover.
Just then an armored car came across the bridge and advanced slowly up the street. It stopped on the opposite side of the street, fifty yards ahead. The sniper could hear the dull panting of the motor. His heart beat faster.
In Liam O'Flaherty s The Sniper, all of these are brought to an acute reality in a single war-torn city. Strong cerebral convictions and opposing philosophies, which people want to destroy. The Sniper How does the author depict the turmoil and plight in a war-torn city? in “The Sniper”? Anger, pain, death and remorse- all unpleasant, but all are faced and. handled in every war.
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.
When a nation is divided, so are it’s people. The American Civil War demonstrates this because of the two divided sides: the union and confederacy. In The Killer Angles it is extremely evident that the people and nation are divided. The novel portrays the different perspectives and opinions of soldiers and commanding officers throughout the Battle of Gettysburg. In the novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, James Longstreet fought for glory, Robert E. Lee fought for his homeland, and Joshua Chamberlain fought for an ideal. First, we will evaluate Longstreet’s motives.
Comparing the three stories “The Dogs Could Teach Me,” “The Flowers,” and “The Sniper,” “The Sniper” demonstrates the best suspenseful text between the three stories. To create a suspenseful story, “The Sniper” develops multiple moments of suspense. For instance, one illustration of suspense in “The Sniper” is “He paused for a moment, considering whether he should risk a smoke. It was dangerous. The flash might be seen in the darkness, and there were enemies watching. He decided to take the risk.” This is a suspenseful moment in “The Sniper” because if the sniper risks to smoke, he will be giving away his position and could be shot at by the enemies. Another representation of suspense is “Pressing his lips together, he took a deep breath through his nostrils and
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.
American Sniper is a heart-wrenching piece about a man who was willing to sacrifice his life for his country. Written primarily by Chris Kyle, the deadliest sniper in American history, this memoir is interspersed with revealing excerpts told by his wife, Taya. This literary device, known as “change in narrator,” distinguishes his work from others’. Kyle demonstrates his style through his use of change in narrator; this provides greater emotional context, examines different perspectives, and enhances reader understanding.
The theme of The Sniper was the civil war and how war can destroy a man both in body and mind for the rest of his life. Liam O’Flaherty suggests the horror of war not only by presenting its physical dangers, but also by showing its psychological effects. We are left to wonder which has the longer lasting effect-the visible physical scars or the ones on the inside? The theme of The Most Dangerous Game was hunter hunted and shows the author's point of view on how one who has intellect can overcome one who has intelligence or instinct. The two stories are similar in showing that even under pressure a man can use his reasoning to keep him alive.
The “Man I Killed” takes us into the Vietnam War and tell us about a soldiers first time of killing another individual. The author describes a Viet Cong soldier that he has killed, using vivid, physical detail with clear descriptions of the dead mans’ fatal wounds. O'Brien envisions the biography of this man and envisions the individual history of the dead Vietnamese soldier starting with his birthplace moving through his life, and finished with him enrolling in the Vietnamese Army. O'Brien also describes some of the dead soldiers’ hopes and dreams. The author uses this history in an attempt to make the dead man more realistic to the reader
In the short story the author uses the sniper’s actions and reactions to create a feeling of anxiety or dread. In “The Sniper” before the republican shot his brother, he began to feel a lust for battle. The author describes what the sniper did before taking the shot, he was smiling, and most sane people are not happy looking in the face of death. The author makes something seem amiss by the characters actions. Liam O’ Flaherty creates suspense through actions, when the sniper goes to check out the body, the author then reveals it is his brother. Through the characters action up into the reveal the mood was anxious. The revealing of it being his brother must have badly affected his mind, after all he did kill his own brother. Liam O’ Flaherty uses suspenseful actions to show how war affects the
He turned his head away unsuspecting that the time of his demise was near. I raised my gun up, looked through the scope, put the dot on where his vitals should be, and using great effort not to let the shakes take over and alter my shot, I squeezed the trigger. I watched the bright yellow sparks fly from my barrel as the black powder expelled the lump of lead flying straight into his chest. As he staggered away in shock from the events that occurred in what felt like a fraction of a second I kept a close eye on him to know where to retrieve his dead
worth of cash. He emptied the cash into his bag and began to make his
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.
He stumbled over a root and the cry that pursued him rose even higher. He saw a shelter burst into flames and the fire flapped at his right shoulder and there was a glitter of water. Then he was down, rolling over and over in the warm sand, crouching with an arm to ward off, trying to cry for mercy.”
His first breath within cloud seared his throat, the pain brought him back to his days at school, when the nurse had to give him hot water after his throat surgery. Nonetheless, this was still ten times worse, it was if someone had shoved hot coals into his mouth. Immediately he realized it was a poison. He looked around and everyone had fallen, most likely dead. His captain laid at his feet. He tried to find a way out of the cloud, but he could not breathe. After a minute’s exposure to the gas, he fell.
This war-torn land shows nothing but death and the dying. The ground is muddy from the rain, it’s dank and sodden. Up above the trench line is barbed wire and … nothing else. No birds, no animals … no people. A few dead bodies of the brave men going to assassinate the enemy by night fall, but stopped dead in their tracks, they got picked off by the sharpshooters. No! No one ever makes it! Never! There is a constant sound of gun blasts and the sound of explosions from the grenades. The dark is lit up by the flashes of the guns against the silver clouded sky. Nobody dares to look up for more than a few seconds otherwise they will be taken out.