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The sniper story analysis
The sniper story analysis
The sniper (characterisation)
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Out of the three stories, “The Dogs Could Teach Me” by Gary Paulsen, “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, and “The Sniper” by Liam O’flaherty, “The Sniper” had the best suspense moments. “The Sniper” is a story about a civil war going on in Dublin, Ireland where one sniper is set up on top of a building and is facing another enemy sniper. At one moment in the story, the enemy sniper shoots the main character sniper in the arm. One of the best suspense moments was the line, “Then he lay still against the parapet, and, closing his eyes, he made an effort of will to overcome the pain.” The bullet in the sniper was lodged in deep in his arm, as he was trying to overcome the pain. The reader does not know if the sniper will live this or not, making …show more content…
“The Dogs Could Teach Me” is about a boy who is dog sledding, but then he gets injured. The boy required help, and one of the dogs named Obeah was there to lick the boy’s wound. One piece of suspense in the story were the lines, “Later I saw the beauty of it... But at the time I saw nothing,” which showed that the boy was at a beautiful place, but he could not see any of it. This piece of suspense was not at good as the piece from “The Sniper,” because this piece infers that the character will live. If the boy is able to talk back to the readers by saying, “At the time,” then it means that he was able to come back to the location of the accident and see the sight after he got over his wound. This part did not build up too much suspense since the readers know what will happen, making the suspense moment from “The Dogs Could Teach Me” not as good as “The Sniper” suspense …show more content…
One day, Myop decided to go gather resources in a different path than what was normally taken. While heading back to her house, she discovered a dead body. One suspense moment was, “By twelve o'clock, her arms laden with sprigs of her findings, she was a mile or more from home. She had often been as far before, but the strangeness of the land made it not as pleasant as her usual haunts,” showing that the path she was walking back on was not the normal and that she felt different. She felt different than normal when the text said the part, “Strangeness of the land,” meaning that she had never been to this part. This moment made the reader infer that something was wrong, and that something was going to happen to Myop because she did not feel that she knew the land that she was walking on. This is where the story leads into the part where she discovers the dead body, something that does not happen every day. The suspense from “The Flowers” is not as good as the suspense from “The Sniper” because the suspense from “The Flowers” only made the reader feel that Myop might have gotten lost in the path that she had felt to be strange to her. The reader does not think that she will die though, making the suspense not too great because the suspense does not have her in any way of harm so the reader knows Myop will live. However, the suspense from “The Sniper”
Even though some suspense doesn’t let the audience know anything, real suspense involves the audience being aware of everything that occurs. In the essay, it states, “The fact that the audience watches actors go blithely through an atmosphere that is loaded with evil makes for real suspense.” (6) This shows that whenever the audience watches the characters don't know anything that’s going on
In “The Sniper” the conflict is man vs man, which means main character is tasked with killing his enemy, but it proves to be quite a challenge. Even though there were many challenges the sniper followed through with his job and persevered even after he was shot in the arm. Wanting to kill his enemy, stay alive, and be one step closer to ending the war was his main goals. Being brave, he took off his hat, placed it on his gun, and raised it above the edge of the roof. Instantly the enemy shot at it and the sniper, pretending to be dead, waited until the enemy got up for him to shoot him. He did some quick thinking and, with determination, handled the conflict quite well.
Johnson, Peter. "Like the Sniper, Story Seems Unstoppable." USATODAY.com. N.p., 23 Oct. 2002. Web. 29 May 2013. .
In John Irving's novel titled, A Prayer for Owen Meany, suspenseful events are of abundance, and there are multiple ways the author creates this suspense. Among these methods of creating suspense, four that stand out are the use of setting, the pace of the story, the involvement of mysteries to be solved, and the ability of the reader to easily identify and sympathize with the protagonist. By placing a character in a gloomy or solitary place, uncomfortable feelings are created, which append to the suspense. Pace and structure of the story also play into the foundation of suspense, as shorter sentences and stronger, more cutting verbs and adjectives are often used to keep the reader highly interested and reading at a rapid speed. Of course, suspense could not be considered what it is if there were no mystery involved. The element of not knowing what is in store for the future and having the urge to find out is the essence of suspense. Also, if the reader cannot easily relate to and sympathize with the character in the suspenseful situation, a loss of interest can arise, and therefore spoil the spirit of the tension. Uncomfortable settings, pace and structure, use of mysteries, and capability to relate to the main character are four techniques that John Irving uses to create suspense.
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
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.
His quick thinking and desperate attempts to avoid an intricate situation ends with him killing his enemy, but the consequence is later revealed at the end of the short story. O’Flaherty writes, “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face” (4). In other words, the enemy that the Republican sniper shoots at the end of the passage was not only his enemy, but his brother. The action of killing his brother shows that the Republican sniper is to blame because he takes action, without much thought, and does not consider that he is shooting his own flesh and blood. The Free Stater sniper is utterly the same as the Republican sniper because he views his enemy the exact same way. He does not ruminate on whether his enemy lives a different life outside of the war. Another sentence that is prominent in showing the mindset of the snipers wanting to create bloodshed from each other is, “ He must kill that enemy…” (3). O’Flaherty writes this to showcase the Republican sniper’s thoughts and feelings through his elaborate plan to assassinate the opposing sniper. The Republican sniper merely deliberates on how he will eliminate his
In the story “The sniper”, the sniper face an external conflict and an internal conflict. His external conflict was the enemy sniper. He saw an old woman heading towards the man in the turret. The old woman was pointing at the sniper. Sniper thought
In Dahl’s short story and in Jacob’s short story, both depict suspense through tone and description. For example, in the “The Landlady”, the narrator stated, “I stuff all my little pets.” This example reveals suspense by providing the landlady killed and stuffed her pets. Furthermore,
This extract emphasises the lonely, outworld feeling that would have been felt living in such settings. This puts into perspective the feeling that will be felt during the coarse of the plot development.
An additional illustration of suspense is “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother's face.” This piece of evidence demonstrates suspense because the story is left as a cliffhanger, the reader doesn’t know if the sniper is heartbroken, irate, or jubilant, making the reader wanting and wondering what the sniper is feeling and what he is going through. These are just a few examples of suspense the author of “The Sniper” wrote. While “The Flowers” has only one example of suspense which is when Myop finds a dead body and a noose. Then the only suspenseful part in “The Dogs Could Teach Me” is when the narrator/main character falls off the cliff. This shows that “The sniper” uses more examples to develop suspense than the other two stories. Also, “The Sniper” has demonstrated and developed suspense better than “The Flowers” and “The Dogs Could Teach Me.” An example of this is “He paused for a moment, considering whether he should risk a
The mood of the story is dark and weary. In this scene the sky is gloomy and there are Republican and Free Starter soldiers fighting in the Irish Civil war, “The long June twilight faded into the night. Dublin lay enveloped in darkness but for the dim light of the moon that shone through the fleecy clouds.. machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically” (O’Flaherty 1). Although the mood of the story is creepy and dim for the most part, it is silent with the sudden sounds of guns firing. As the story progresses, the sniper’s emotions begin reflecting on his actions. He begins to feel guilt and remorse for killing someone and the mood shifts to tension and violence.
The suspense is created by the different characters and many mysterious setting. In this story suspense is presented in a way to keep the reader engaged in the story. The main suspense begins with Helen Stoner telling her story to Sherlock Holmes. Helen told Holmes about the mysterious and strange events that occurred. The events such as, whistling in the middle of the night, as well as her sister’s mysterious death. Doyle describing the dark bedroom that Watson spend the night in, made the reader feel the suspense as if they were in the same room. He uses descriptions such as “...This is very interesting. You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where the little opening for the ventilator is” as well as “Holmes as we sat together in the gathering darkness” (Conan Doyle) made the reader more engaged into the story. Foreshadowing is also created in the story to give clues that suggest events that will occur later in the story. Foreshadowing is seemed to be seen when the pole rope was connected to a ventilator and the ventilator went to the next room. The poisonous snake was the weapon used to kill the daughter, by traveling through the
The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty is a poem about a poor man trapped in the middle of a civil war. In the beginning of the poem, he is seen as a cold, terrible man, but as the poem progresses the reader becomes more sympathetic to him when he is remorseful for the actions he has taken during his time of battle lust. The poem begins with the man on a rooftop above the city of Dublin, a Republican sniper, waiting to take down his enemies. A woman walks past and spots him, turns to tell authorities of his position when the firing of his gun causes her to “[fall] with a sudden shriek into the gutter” (1). The act of shooting a woman to save himself is a cruel act, especially in the 1920’s when the assault of a woman would have seemed atrocious to any
The “keen” day turns to “damp.” She also uses “strangeness” and “gloom” to represent this shift. (Loeb 1 par 1). Walker uses specific words to indicate Myop’s location to symbolize the time period and how it affects the character. Loeb writes, “We are in a rural setting: there are chickens, a pig pen, a hen-house, fences, a spring, and a smokehouse.