How Is Imagery Used In The Sniper

“The Sniper” is a short story based during the Civil War between the Republicans and the Free Staters. A young Republican sniper, Dublin is on a night watch for enemies while under the cover of darkness on a parchment rooftop when he decides to take a risk of lighting a cigarette, knowing that his enemies were watching and waiting. Dublin now realized that he had to be much more cautious of his enemies as one of his enemies fires but misses Dublin. All throughout the story Dublin is avoiding his enemies while trying to kill them also. On the opposite side of the street on top of a roof a shot rang out hitting Dublin in his forearm. He could not pick up his sniper, he “must have fractured the bone” (Flaherty 2), so he cleaned his wound with

iodine and came up with a plan. Dublin let his hat fall over the roof and onto the ground, then he let his arm hang over the roof and dropped his rifle with a clatter onto the ground as well. His enemy had took the bait and had thought that Dublin was dead, his enemy stood and looked thankfully into the sky.

Dublin then took out his light revolver with his good arm and shot the enemy sniper. The enemy fell off the roof and to the ground lifelessly. At this point Dublin was quite curious about the identity of his dead enemy and was “bitten by remorse” (Flaherty 3), so he decided to go down off the roof to where the enemy corpse lay while he thought the coast was still clear. When Dublin reached the ground shots rang out around him and he scattered for cover of the dark. He then turned over the dead enemy's lifeless body and saw the face of his very own kin, his brother. When identifying important details in any text you would need to know who the author is, the genre style, the writing style, main characters, plot line, and what the text is mainly about and the text’s setting. In this case the main character is the young Republican sniper Dublin and the enemy Free Staters snipers. The story is based during the Civil War and is written in an enternatmentail standpoint, meaning that the author’s purpose was just to entertain the story’s readers.

In the same way as comprehending the text you also need to know the certain parts of the text, “these include the story’s setting, characters, plot, conflict, sometimes climax, and theme” (Rickey “Elements of a Short Story”). “The Sniper describes the Irish Civil War between the Republicans and the Free Staters [that occurred in the year of 1921 to 1923]” (Johnson “The Sniper and the Irish Civil War”). “Republicans and Free Staters were waging civil war” (Flaherty 1). The author (Liam O’ Flaherty) expresses the cruelness of the civil war between the Republicans and the Free Staters. While keeping a dramatic standpoint in the events of his story, the author’s purpose was to inform us(the readers) about the civil war. The author also tries to show the readers the difficulty that the Irish people (Free Staters) had to go through while trying to avoid becoming slaves to the British (Republicans).

Dublin (protagonist) is a Republican sniper who “is thoughtful and deep [but] is used to looking at death” (Flaherty 1). Dublin is also somewhat of a risk taker because he decides to light a cigarette in the darkness causing a light even though he knows that his enemies are watching and waiting. “Placing a cigarette between his lips, he struck a match, inhaled the smoke hurriedly and put out the light” (Flaherty 1). Dublin has motivations that keeps him going through the pain and struggles during this time, “He must kill that enemy and he could not use his rifle” (Flaherty 3), shows that after being shot in the arm and unable to lift his rifle he must still complete his “mission” and power through his pain. “The distance was about fifty yards - a hard shot in the dim light, and his right arm was paining him like a thousand devils… he took a steady aim and fired… his enemy had been hit” (Flaharty 3). When describing Dublin’s looks he “has the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the frantic...deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death” (Flaherty 1). We know this because Dublin acts with immaturity when he takes risks already knowing the outcome, he also is young and he is thoughtful because he feels remorse when he kills his enemy.

The enemy sniper is the antagonist who has conflict with Dublin (protagonist), the conflict begins when Dublin takes the risk of lighting a cigarette making him vulnerable to his enemy and then shots ring out toward Dublin. This conflict ends when Dublin tricks the enemy and then shoots him with his revolver, killing him. Dublin complicates the conflict when he shoots a man and an older woman who is the informer in this situation, “Suddenly from the opposite roof a shot rang out and the sniper dropped his rifle with a curse… his forearm was dead… I’m hit he muttered” (Flaherty 2). There is also other characters in this short story also specifically the driver of the armoured car, the passenger and the older woman who acts as an informer for the enemies. The older woman tells the passenger about the location of Dublin after he exchanges gunfire with his enemy sniper. Dublin then acts quickly by “raised his rifle and fired… the woman darted toward the side street...the sniper fired again [and] the woman whirled round and fell with a shriek into the gutter” (Flaherty 2).

There are multiple literary elements that are The Sniper ,these include things like imagery, conflict, simile, dramatic irony, and many others.

Imagery is “when the author uses words to create mental images to help the reader visualize more realistically. The author does this when he describes the setting “The long June twilight faded into the night… in the 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” (Flaherty 1). Simile is comparing and contrasting two things using the words “like” or “as”. For example when the author is describing the rapid gunfire in the streets, “Here and there throughout the city, machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms” (Flaherty 1). Another literary element present would be conflict, conflict is the resistance of the protagonist from something that is in his/ her/it dream or reach/aim. Specifically mentioned when the republican sniper, Dublin is shot at by his enemy after lighting a cigarette, “Cautiously he raised himself and peered over the parapet [suddenly] there was a flash and a bullet whizzed over his head” (Flaherty

1).

In my opinion the short story, The Sniper was an exciting story.

All throughout the story there was unexpected twists that added even more suspense to the story. It was sad at the end when the Republican sniper, Dublin had killed his brother unknowingly but overall it was a very surprising and enjoyable read. When I put myself in the protagonist’s situation when Dublins is put in danger and has to kill the enemy, I would have probably just decided to try to shoot the antagonist but not kill him because after all it was his brother that Dublin has killed. I also think that when he had tricked his enemy into thinking he was dead then he should have gotten to safety while he was still able to. Also if I was in his situation I would never have lit the cigarette because he knew that it would lead the enemy to his location, he also knew that it was a large and dangerous

risk.

One idea that could be related to this short story is the idea of freedom and cruelty. Freedom because in the Irish Civil war the Irish people were just trying to protect their country and also trying to protect themselves and their families from devastation and a harder lifestyle. In the story the Free Staters were the Irish people and the Republicans were the British people. Dublin and his enemy was shooting at each other and with Dublin's wittiness his enemy resulted in the one getting killed. Cruelty can also be used because the whole Irish Civil War was cruel, specifically how much killing there was. In the story it described rapid gunfire with machine guns and rifles, also enemies hiding undercover of the darkness, watching and waiting for a new target. Both the antagonist and the protagonist were cruel in this situation because they both repeatedly had malicious intent to kill each other and anyone else who shot at them. The overall lesson to be learned from this story is to “War reduces human beings to mere objects, no names no faces...they are just targets and nothing more but something to shoot at” (Breanen “The Sniper”).