The Sniper Theme Essay

D. H. Lawrence says, “people always make war when they say they love peace”. Young men go into war believing that they are fighting to create peace but come out only fighting for peace in their mind and soul. In the short story The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty, the protagonist a republican Soldier has become accustomed to the reality of war. When an enemy soldier becomes aware of his existence he is faced with a life or death situation. On the rooftop he had been shot by the enemy soldier and knew that if he stayed there, he would be living with God up in heaven. After coming up with a cunning plan, he wins the battle. Having feeling remorseful after shooting this enemy soldier, he feels the urge to check who that young man was. It was his brother who is now living with God. The republican soldier not knowing who the enemy soldier had been, though it was a good shot but after hit with a reality of not having a brother anymore he is sickened of what has become of him. O’Flaherty portrays the short story’s theme very well which is “war reduces human beings to mere objects”

The setting has a very depressing and cold feeling. Everywhere one turns, another person is getting shot and enemies are waiting for the next kill. It takes place on rooftops adjacent to the road across from each other. Because it was on the rooftop, the snipers could not hide and would have been shot if they got down to hide. The rooftops create a dire situation because the only way the soldiers were getting out was by killing each other. “Here and there through the city, machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms” (O’Flaherty, 1) describes the sounds that they had encountered every day. Having to face those gunshot sounds every day becomes normal for the soldiers fighting. The setting of being in a civil war influences and alters what their brains think is