In Liam O'Flaherty´s The Sniper, all of these are brought to an acute reality in a single war-torn city.

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, due to 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. 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, due to which people

want to destroy the seemingly “wrong” plague this world and are the

main reason for plight. To aid in his creation of such emotional

conflict, turmoil and plight, the author has portrayed the sniper as a

very controversial character. This story is oriented around one

character in the Civil War which he should not even be in as he is

mentioned to be a “student” in the story.

The story whose main theme is violence, attempts to chronicle the

short span of fanaticism that inspires youth that leads to turmoil in

the first place. In this chaotic situation however, fanaticism is what

one may need in order to survive and this is exactly what the sniper

is facing. This is shown when the sniper is said to be the “student

with the face of an ascetic”. He has one task to perform- to kill the

soldiers of the Free States. However, the most important line that

catches the attention of the reader is “…the eyes of a man who is used

to looking at death.” This is very ironic as he was earlier compared

to a student who is like a symbol for innocence where now he is spoken

of as a murderer. He is engrossed in fulfilling his duty and is now a

student of violence....

... middle of paper ...

...s’ the life of a soldier.

The gory sights in the city of Dublin, torn apart and paralysed with

war and fear is depicted by people bleeding in the gutters till they

die and rapid gunfire everywhere followed by a deafening silence.

Killing is done in cold blood and even then, the sniper maintains calm

until he kills his opponent sniper on the opposite rooftop. This

calmness in goriness clearly justifies the turmoil and the plight that

the author shows in this short story. The author uses the course and

characters of the story to chart the course of the characters in every

scene of violence everywhere.

The emphasis given to the bloodshed, the war, the loss of life is more

than what is given to the feelings, the people and the life and in

this way Liam O’Flaherty has depicted turmoil and plight in the

war-torn city in this short story titled “The Sniper”.