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What is the importance of character development in literature
Literary Analysis
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John F. Kennedy once said “Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind”. War runs the danger of destroying a soldier’s mind and body. When a soldier does leave the battlefield he/she still has to carry the burden of war. Servicemen and women have to go on living and hiding the emotional and physical wounds of war. In the short story “The Sniper” author Liam O’ Flaherty includes the element of surprise to real that war not only causes physical risk, but also psychological suffering. Liam O’ Flaherty uses suspense in order to convey war’s physical risk. In “The Sniper” the author uses pacing to reveal the use of suspense. In the story when the republican sniper was shot Liam O’ Flaherty prolonged his suffering. The sniper’s injury seemed to have more of an impact because the author is waiting until the last moment to reveal if he will be okay. The author also uses pacing when the sniper is planning his fake death and sneak kill. The author slowly sets up the republican sniper’s planned kill, this begins to make the mood tenser then finally he kills …show more content…
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
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
In the aftermath of a comparatively minor misfortune, all parties concerned seem to be eager to direct the blame to someone or something else. It seems so easy to pin down one specific mistake that caused everything else to go wrong in an everyday situation. However, war is a vastly different story. War is ambiguous, an enormous and intangible event, and it cannot simply be blamed for the resulting deaths for which it is indirectly responsible. Tim O’Brien’s story, “In the Field,” illustrates whom the soldiers turn to with the massive burden of responsibility for a tragedy. The horrible circumstances of war transform all involved and tinge them with an absurd feeling of personal responsibility as they struggle to cope.
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.
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
The main characters in “The Sniper” are the Republican Sniper and the Free State Sniper. The Republican Sniper is described as having “the face of a student, thin and ascetic” (“The Sniper”). This makes it seem as though he was a student who was forced to enter the war. Both snipers represent all of the soldiers that were forced into a war they can’t get out of (O’Flaherty). The battle between these two snipers symbolize the battle between the Republicans and the Free State soldiers. In “The Sniper”, the two snipers mirror each other on separate rooftops. (O’Flaherty). Their separation represents the fact that each side has a different point of view. They each see things their own way. In “The Sniper”, all citizens are forced to take sides (O’Flaherty). An old woman comes and tells the Soldier in the Turret about the Republican Sniper’s location on the rooftop (The Sniper 218-19). The Soldier in the Turret is a member of the Free State Army. The Soldier and his army attempt to approach the Republican Sniper, but he shoots both the Soldier and the old woman (The Sniper 219). Their deaths show how the war has dehumaniz...
When it comes to stories, the most important exposition is setting, and we see that in Liam O’Flaherty’s “The Sniper”, where the setting enables action and conflict for the characters. “The Sniper” is a short story is about two snipers on opposing sides in an Irish civil war who battle on opposite rooftops for survival in the dark of night. This factor, the darkness, starts the whole battle. The time enables the conflict when the Republican sniper lights a cigarette, and it is said, “The flash might have be seen in the darkness, and there were enemies watching.” (O’Flaherty, 2000, p.6) As a result, the conflict between the two snipers begins when the other sniper fires. Along with time, location also matters. The Republican sniper is located
O’Brien later says that he distorted the story; this did not actually happen. He says that what happened was that he was a soldier and he pulled the trigger and is not certain whether his bullets hit people or not. If O’Brien said that however, readers would not understand the way he felt as he pulled the trigger. He gives the story how he threw a grenade and killed the man because that was the way he felt. He tells of his grief afterwards and, as civilians, readers are able to grasp why he felt that way. It would be difficult to sympathize with him if he said that he didn’t know if he killed but felt the grief anyway. The distortion of the story makes it more effective because readers can understand the way he feeling and as O’Brien says, a war story is about the human heart. The distortion of this story allows readers to grasp the story that O’Brien wanted to
War has been a constant part of human history. It has greatly affected the lives of people around the world. These effects, however, are extremely detrimental. Soldiers must shoulder extreme stress on the battlefield. Those that cannot mentally overcome these challenges may develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Sadly, some resort to suicide to escape their insecurities. Soldiers, however, are not the only ones affected by wars; family members also experience mental hardships when their loved ones are sent to war. Timothy Findley accurately portrays the detrimental effects wars have on individuals in his masterpiece The Wars.
Liam O’Flaherty’s The Sniper describes the horror of the Irish Civil war between the Free Staters and the Republicans. He tells the short story from the perspective of a Republican sniper.
In the sniper, the theme emerges when guns are firing and people are at war. For example, on page one, a Republican sniper hears guns firing in the distance. On page one, the text states “ Here and there through the city,
He described the thoughts and feelings of the sniper but did not do so for any other characters. When O’Flaherty describes the snipers injury, he details the intensity of pain he felt. He had to grind his teeth to overcome the pain. Immediately after the enemy sniper was killed, O’Flaherty describes the sniper as talking gibberish and cursing himself. The author attempts to give the reader a candid view of the harshness of war. Most readers feel pity for the Republican sniper when they are told he killed his own brother, a devastating turn of events for someone who was just celebrating a
Stated in the story is that the sniper “has the cold gleam of a fanatic in his eyes” showing he is used to war. Also by stating “he is used to looking at death” this revealed that the sniper had seen many dead human beings, along with killing them. When the sniper eats his sandwich the author says he does so hungrily, meaning by instinct like an animal. Even when smoking he does so quickly due to the training he has gone through to be a sniper, his discipline. When the sniper kills the other sniper to finish the story his curiosity draws him to finding the identity of the person he has killed. Coming to the realization of the bitterness and evil the war has brought out in him. Finally the sniper looks into the eyes of the man and finds out the man is his brother, in fact saying that the sniper has killed another human being due to the evil within his
War. Death. Pain. Anger and remorse. None are pleasantries, but all are faced and handled every day. In Liam O'Flaherty's "The Sniper," all of these things are brought to an acute reality. To aid in his creation of such emotional conflict, O'Flaherty portrayed the sniper as a very controversial character. We can see this contrast in personality by looking at appearance, actions, and thoughts.
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 “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty, the main character’s role was to protect and serve for his nation and its citizens. For example, when the republican got shot, he