Novelist and short story writer, Liam O’Flaherty grew up in a village on the western coast of Ireland. He was a good student when he was young, and when he grew older, he enlisted in the British Army. Later, after enlisting in the army, he began to write stories while he was in the war. Many of Liam O’Flaherty’s short stories about war, have become very popular throughout the world. One of his greatest, most popular stories, “The Sniper” has some of O’Flaherty’s experiences of being in the war. The short story, “The Sniper”, was published in the London paper, The New Leader, on January 12, 1923. Liam O’Flaherty was a World War I veteran. He wrote most of his stories while in the war. The stories he wrote, became very popular after the …show more content…
An example of suspenseful writing in the story was when the enemy sniper shoots the Republican sniper. “Suddenly from the opposite roof a shot rang out and the sniper dropped his rifle with a curse. The rifle clattered to the roof. The sniper thought the noise would wake the dead. He stooped to pick the rifle up. He couldn 't lift it. His forearm was dead. "I 'm hit," he muttered.” This Short story can show how sudden things can change, and how scary it can be trying to figure out what to do next. Mr. O’Flaherty tells his short story to inform others how difficult and scary war can be when someone gets shot at or wounded. In his short story he also shows how fast and smart you have to be, and know how to take care of yourself if something happens. In the story, after the sniper got shot in the arm he knew how to temporarily fix it. “Then taking out his field dressing, he ripped open the packet with his knife. He broke the neck of the iodine bottle and let the bitter fluid drip into the wound. A paroxysm of pain swept through him. He placed the cotton wadding over the wound and wrapped the dressing over it. He tied the ends with his teeth.” In war anything can happen at any certain …show more content…
The story is representing Mr. O’Flaherty and his brother in the war. Liam O’Flaherty was a great author and created many pieces of work that have become very popular since they were published. In “The Sniper”, it shows readers that war only makes people simple objects, how bad it can affect people and the side effects, and some experiences will be with some people till they die. This short story of the two snipers was the story of what happened to Mr. O’Flaherty, and how he got a mental illness from killing his own brother. In “The Sniper”, it can show some of the true horrors that a war can bring into a person’s
O Brien 's point of view is an accurate one as he himself because he is a Vietnam veteran. The title of the short story is meaningful because it describes each soldier’s personality and how he handles conflict within the mind and outside of the body during times of strife. The title fits the life as a soldier perfectly because it shows the reality that war is more than just strategy and attacking of forces. O’Brien narrates the story from two points of view: as the author and the view of the characters. His style keeps the reader informed on both the background of things and the story itself at the same
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.
I felt that O’Brien did a good job causing the reader feel as if they were personally there experiencing the battles and getting to know the soldiers on their own. He made you feel the pain of the reality of the war. O’Brien excels at connecting the reader to the personal trials and tribulations of each of each of the soldiers to help put you in the place and thoughts of them. Though the novel didn 't have a clear storyline, and skipped around, it still came across as a clear, well organized collection. I would highly recommend this book to
The main character of “The Sniper” is the republican sniper and the main character of the “Cranes” is Songsam. In “The Sniper”, the sniper is in a war and he is trying to kill his enemy. At the beginning of the story, he is on a rooftop near O’Connell Bridge lay watching. Beside him lay his rifle and over his shoulders was slung pair of field glasses. He looked like he was a student. He was self disciplined but was extremely devoted towards the war. He was eating a sandwich because he eaten nothing since morning. He is going to smoke but he paused and thought whether he should or shouldn’t but he did. In the “Cranes”, Korean War is going on. During this war, many villages along the thirty-eighth parallel changed hands several times.
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.
In “Ambush,” Tim O’Brien conveys a sense of regret and uncertainty as he attempts to justify his actions of killing an enemy soldier in Vietnam. (MS 7) While serving in the Vietnam War, O’Brien sees an enemy soldier approaching. His military training prompts O’Brien to throw a grenade, killing the soldier instantly. The reoccurring memory of killing the soldier haunts O’Brien for years. Throughout his essay, O’Brien uses the literary elements imagery, tone, and irony to portray his sense of regret and uncertainty. (MS 2)
O’Brien’s unique verisimilitude writing style fills the novel with deep meaning and emotion. Analyzing the novel through a psychological lens only adds to its allure. Understanding why characters act the way they do helps bring this novel to life. The reader begins to empathize with the characters. Every day, the soldiers’ lives hang in the balance. How these soldiers react to life-threatening situations will inspire the reader. Life has an expiration date. Reading about people who are held captive by their minds and who die in the name of war, will inspire the reader to live everyday as if they are currently in the
Mr. Liam O’Flaherty portrayed the theme of the short story, “The Sniper”, by implying that you have to do what you have to do. When in war, Soldiers must remove all emotions so that nothing can hold them back from doing their job. If a soldier is placed in a situation where he must kill to stay alive he needs to be
It is a story about the love of war, the love of brotherhood, the love of friendship, the love of family. It is also about the what could have been and what could of not. O’Brien is more focus on the raw emotion but not just only the emotion of the soldier but the audience. Different audiences ranging from reader who experienced the war and to the readers that would come well after the war.” With these stories O’Brien is trying to tell us a story about his emotion. His true goal is to bring his reader back to the war so they can feel the emotion of that moment. What I came to learn about Tim O’Brien reasoning is that he uses fiction to tell his story. With fiction he could tell his stories from many point of views, even though the theme is the same the details always differ. With details O’Brien can spark any type of emotion by his form, and the language he uses to speak. The more details the more us the readers feel the need to care. Creating the need to put ourselves into that person situation. The need to feel pity for the characters, because it feels so
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.
Like "The Lives of the Dead," it begins with a statement that the rest of the chapter throws into question. "The War wasn 't all terror and violence," the narrator tells us, "Sometimes things could almost get sweet" (31). What follows, however, is a series of vignettes that are anything but "sweet." When a Vietnamese boy with a plastic leg approaches an American soldier with a chocolate bar, the soldier reflects, "One leg, for Chrissake. Some poor fucker ran out of ammo" (31). When the same soldier steals his friend 's puppy, "strapped it to a Claymore antipersonnel mine and squeezed the firing device," he responds with an ironic affirmation of the initiation right of the conventional war story: "What 's everyone so upset about? ... I mean, Christ, I 'm just a boy" (37). Here, the novel renders ironic both the loss of innocence and the "reconsideration" that structure the traditional war story. The positive spin that underlies the war story as a genre emerges here only as a bankrupt fantasy. Thus in "How to Tell a True War Story," the narrator warns, "If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie" (68). Aimed
Tim O'Brien's story, "Speaking of Courage," is an allegory that opens up the hearts of soldiers. O'Brien's use of metaphor allows the reader to relate on a personal level with the soldiers of the war. Men who fight for their country and die on the battlefield are more than just a number or a casualty. These men all have a bond that most of the world does not understand.
Create a list of O'Brien's criteria of how to tell a true war story and give an example of each criteria in outline form.
The first act of a soldier struggling with post-war life is the chapter, “Speaking of Courage,” when the character, Norman Bowker, is trying to work through the loss of a fellow soldier as he drives around his childhood hometown. “The war was over and there was no place in particular to go” (O’Brien 131), “As he came up, a pair of red flares puffed open, a soft blur...
O’Brien, Tim. “How To Tell a True War Story.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2003. p. 420-429.