Liam O Flaherty The Sniper Analysis

In the story “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty, teaches readers how was makes humans less of human beings. In the beginning of the story the author explains how the main character or “the Sniper” obtained “eyes of a man who was used to looking at death.” This part in the short story shows implies how often this man has looked at someone dead or that he has killed. The fact that he continues to do his job and let the war take control of him. Whenever he kills a man, the person on the other end is not someone he knows, everyone is just an enemy. Over his in the Army, he had been washed of all his feelings, which make him allowed to do his job. Towards the middle of the story, he notices that a woman was giving the enemy his position. As was happening,

he pulled the trigger on the gunner and watched the “head fell heavily on the turret wall” and then turned to the woman and did the same and witnessed “the woman whirled round and fell with a shriek into the gutter.” THe fact that he was able to do this horrific act with not even a single second of hesitation just shows how little he cared about these people's lives. As the war went on, it had an affect on this person. The normal human emotion and feelings that are gifted to people as a part of life had faded from him. No person would be able to do his job without hesitation the way he did. Later in the story when he finds out that there is another sniper with the same objective as him, to kill the enemy. Once the main character gets into position to take him out, he takes it and then “the cloud of fear faded from his mind and began to laugh.” From this piece of evidence, it proves that this person i wiped from his emotion. In life when a person dies you don’t begin to laugh. If any emotion were to be shown it'd be to be sad. In my lifetime I have had a couple of pets die and each particular time I would become emotional. Unlike this character where he has been through so much and witnessed death so many times but had been convinced with one objective to surpass his feelings, they are just the enemy.