Liam O Flaherty's The Sniper

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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.

The setting of this short story is Dublin. The city is described as “enveloped in darkness”, which gives us a very depressing and mysterious atmosphere, indicating that war is an horrible thing. The line "The dim light of the moon shone through fleecy clouds, casting a pale light" conveys a isolated and dark feeling, because the moon is often thought to be lonely so high up in the sky.
"Around the beleaguered Four Courts the heavy guns roared. Here and there through the city machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically like dogs …show more content…

By introducing the main character as “a Republican sniper lay watching,” readers will automatically connect him to themselves, or someone they know. That way, it becomes more shocking at the end when the discovery of the sniper’s dead brother is revealed. O’Flaherty is also limiting the point of view by not telling us the feelings of the Republican sniper. This allows readers to make our own assumptions of his emotions. The third person point of view lets the reader follow the sniper throughout the whole story and to see and feel the events through his eyes. Therefore, we understand the negative effects of war as O’Flaherty effectively uses a limited third person point of …show more content…

Soldiers are forced to kill whoever is in the way, no matter if they are family or not. In The Sniper, the main theme is that brother is pitted against brother. Because of war, soldiers are worried about their own lives and their enemy, therefore they tend to classify others into either allies or enemies. They become blind to distinguish who it is they might be killing. No thought is given once they see someone that is not on their side. Killing them is the first option that comes to mind. Pulling the trigger is done without knowing who the enemy on the other side of the gun is. The horror of war is that, people are killed. Soldiers do not think about who they are aiming at. When a person believes in something strongly, they are willing to fight for it and do all kinds of things regardless of how amazing or horrible it is. It is these things that lead to

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