Who Is The Antagonist In The Sniper

The Sniper and the Cranes

The main character of “The Sniper” is the republican sniper and the main character of the “Cranes” is Songsam. In “The Sniper”, the sniper is in a war and he is trying to kill his enemy. At the beginning of the story, he is on a rooftop near O’Connell Bridge lay watching. Beside him lay his rifle and over his shoulders was slung pair of field glasses. He looked like he was a student. He was self disciplined but was extremely devoted towards the war. He was eating a sandwich because he eaten nothing since morning. He is going to smoke but he paused and thought whether he should or shouldn’t but he did. In the “Cranes”, Korean War is going on. During this war, many villages along the thirty-eighth parallel changed hands several times.

Songsam, the main character lives in thirty-eighth parallel.

He saw his old childhood friend. His childhood friend was a prisoner. He meets his friend and he volunteers to escort his friend. In both stories, a war is going on. The situation of the Sniper is more tragic right now. I think that the resolution of the cranes is most hopeful than “The Sniper”. Both characters learn similar lessons at the end of the story because at the end of the “Cranes”, he let his friend go and learns that family is more important that war and in “The Sniper”, he kills his enemy but he comes close he realizes that he killed his brother and he learns that war tear families apart.

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

that the man and the woman are going to kill him so the sniper shoots the woman and the woman with a shriek into the gutter. Suddenly from the opposite roof somebody shot him. The sniper dropped his rifle with a curse. His forearm was dead. He ripped his sleeve open and saw that the bullet had lodged in the bone. He opened an iodine bottle and let the fluid drip into the wound. A sudden attack swept through him. He lay still for a long time nursing his wounded arm and planning escape. He had to kill his enemy and he could not use his rifle. He only had a revolver and then he thought of a plan. He tricked his enemy by pretending he is dead. His enemy saw the cap and the rifle fall and thought he killed the sniper. Sniper’s enemy stood up because he thought that he killed the sniper but he didn’t. The sniper stood up and shoots his enemy with his revolver. After he kills his enemy, he utters a cry of joy. When the sniper looked at his enemy falling, the lust of battle died in him. He started feeling remorseful. He started cursing the war, cursing himself and everybody. He decided to leave the roof now and look for his company commander, to report. There was not much danger going through the streets. When sniper reached the street level, he felt curious to see his enemy’s face. On the way, a machine gun tore up everything around him but he escaped. Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face.
In the story “Cranes”, the main character is Songsam. He returns to his village and realizes that it’s not the same village as he remembered. The village as a whole showed a few traces of destruction from the war. On his way, he stopped and climbed a chestnut tree. He remembers his childhood memory of an old man saying “ You bad boy, you’re climbing up my chestnut tree again!”. The old man was passed away. Holding the trunk of the tree, he gazed at the blue sky. Some chestnut fell on the ground. He saw that in a public peace-police station, a young man stood, tied up. Songsam approached him to take a closer look and he realizes that the person who is tied up is his old childhood friend, Tokchae. This relates to sniper because the sniper also realize that the person he killed is his brother. Songsam asked the police officer what it was all about. Tokchae was the vice chairman of the Farmers Communists League and had been flushed out of his hideout in his own house. Songsam lit a cigarette and sat down on a dirt floor. After sometime, he said “I’ll take the fellow with me.” Tokchae refused to look at Songsam. They left the village. On their way, Songsam had many flashbacks. One of them was they were trying to get chestnuts and Songsam fell and lost his chestnuts. Tokchae gave Songsam his chestnuts. This actually motivates him to decide to smoke in front of his friend. He shows kindness because his friend did too. Songsam also learns about recent developments on Tokchae’s life once his friend begins to talk to him. Tokchae said that he stayed with his family because of his father. His father’s health is not good. He was not well. They had their land there. They had work. This information complicates Songsam’s feelings about his friend. Tokchae was likely to convince Songsam to leave him because Songsam started thinking that his friend did the right thing by staying back and take care of his father and land. Suddenly, Songsam remembered his fault. He left his family behind because of the war. He was embarrassed because he left. They both started walking. Songsam again had a flashback of his childhood memory. They were trying to set cranes free from the trap. They heard a shot gun and thought that the cranes were dead but they weren’t. It took cranes a minute but they flew. Now Songsam was thinking his friend as a crane and thinking about letting him go. After some time, he let his friend go because he thought that his friend was innocent. In “The Sniper”, the sniper killed his brother and in “Cranes”, Songsam let his old childhood friend go.
Friends and families are more important that war because war can tear them apart. These two stories are similar but are a little different at the end.