In the short story, “The Sniper,” author Adam O’ Flaherty includes the element of surprise to reveal that war causes not only physical risk, but also psychological sufferings. This is true because of many reasons according to the story. Flaherty uses surprise and the element of suspense to show how war affects those involved. In the story, there is a Civil War taking place in Ireland. The war is between the Republicans and the Free Starters. The Republican sniper who is fighting against the Free Starters gets shot several times by a Free Starter sniper. Later on, he deceives the Free Starter sniper into thinking he was dead, but shoots the Free Starter sniper dead. As he went to go look at his enemy, surprisingly and shockingly the dead Free Starter sniper turns out to be his own brother. …show more content…
For example, in the beginning of the story, Flaherty talks about the Republican sniper that lay quietly watching. He uses suspense to describe the republican sniper as quoted, “his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic, they were deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death.” This quote from the story shows and creates suspense through the sniper’s eyes and how he was so used to looking at death during war. This also affects how a war changes a man or soldier to see or experience sufferings and also can make someone go mad from their normal limits, such as looking at death so often. Another example is the usage of the setting to build up suspense, such as the darkness and fleecy clouds that lay over Dublin during the war. The darkness during the war shows a cold, scary feeling or sadness in the fight of the
Suspense is defined as the author withholding information or when the unexpected happens, leaving you guessing and wanting more. In the story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, he has inserted much suspense in this short (long) story, for the reason that it makes the reader want to know more and having to mindset of excitement or surprise. Another reason he added many suspense is so that it wouldn’t be so blunt, it wouldn’t just tell us what happened it would give us details and how he got or how he did that and more.
Copious bullets, like that of torrential downpour, reign over the battlefield; a setting in which man created through dispute, engulfs each and every individual caught within it. Some are immediately spun into a downward spiral, while with others, it hits them in the midst -- even if they have built an immunity to war’s ways. Two fictional characters, both sharing a similar atmosphere, experience the true affects to war in their own ways. Although war never changes, the individuals do, no matter the situation. This is exemplified through the fictional tales, told by Liam O’Flaherty’s “The Sniper,” as well as Tim O’Brien’s “Where Have You Gone Charming Billy,” and as the main characters are to each their own story, they bear contradistinction to one another in the aspect of war, personality, and the emotional reactions to war.
To make the reader question the stories, O’Brien observes that stories can be changed to prove different points. He notes that different stories can make you feel better or worse. However, O’Brien also explains that absolutely true war stories are never as glamorous as their false counterparts, such as those in films. They don’t provide a reader with the confusing nature of war, but rather false stories do because they can be misconstrued to make the reader understand the feelings of a soldier. This answers part of the central question by showing how soldiers feel about
Suspense in The Most Dangerous Game In The book “The most dangerous game” by Richard Connell, the author has many ways of creating suspense. He tries to make suspense by using a variety of different technics. One way is creating the overall mood of the story. He uses a mix of words to give you a feeling of the characters.
“Wars never hurt anybody except for the people who died” -Salvador Dali, leader of the Surrealist Movement. In both stories men who are at war are described, both of these men have killed a man who are known as their foes. Both of the men realize that the man they killed could've been a friend, and were someone who really wasn't the enemy. The relationship between these two stories is that war can tear families apart. In Liam O'Flaherty's “The Sniper” and “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy both show similarities and differences in plot, irony, and theme.
In “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty, it explores the idea that in war, people are actually killing their brothers. This theme is portrayed through the use of irony and imagery. Initially, the author uses death imagery to emphasize the scene of the story, “with the machine gunner’s head hanging lifelessly over the turret. The woman’s corpse lay still in the gutter.” This quote gives the reader a visualization of the street in the story where everything is lifeless, silent and depressing.
Between the three stories, “The Dogs Could Teach Me,” “The Flowers,” and “The Sniper.” “The Sniper” demonstrates the best suspenseful text between the three stories. To create a suspenseful story, “The Sniper” develops multiple moments of suspense. For instance one illustration of suspense in “The Sniper” is, “He paused for a moment, considering whether he should risk a smoke. It was dangerous. The flash might be seen in the darkness, and there were enemies watching. He decided to take the risk.” This is a suspenseful moment in “The Sniper” because if the sniper risks to smoke, he will be giving away his position and could be shot at by the enemy's. Another representation of suspense is, “Pressing his lips together, he took a deep breath
In the short story, The Sniper, O’Flaherty explored the theme that a person’s desire to live can consume all of his or her humanity. One example of the theme was when the sniper shot and killed an old woman when she told an enemy tank his location. “The sniper fired again. The woman whirled around and fell with a shriek…” Although the old woman was threatening his life by informing on him, killing an old woman in any situation should be a traumatic experience for anyone, particularly a younger soldier, whose face was like a student’s. However, he had shown no hesitation in shooting her. When he put iodine on his bullet wound, he is able to feel the pain because his external sensors for pain have not been numbed by war. By contrast, his internal
THE SNIPER The story The sniper was written by lian o’flaherty. The story is about a sniper trying to take out the other sniper across the street and he later finds out it was his brother. In the sniper the author create suspense to make it interesting. The other is telling you what's going on.
One example of suspense in “The Monkey’s Paw” by Jacobs is created through setting. For example in the very beginning, it says “the night was cold and wet”, (Jacobs, 1). This example adds suspense because it sets the mood of the story and gives the story a gloomy and dark feel. Also, it is night and sometimes bad things can happen at night. Another example of suspense through setting is when a conversation starts amongst the Whites. Mr. White says “hark at the wind”, (Jacobs, 7). This is showing how the wind is loud and noisy. Lastly, when the Whites are talking about how they had to wait for Sergeant Major Morris because they live so far out with only one neighbor. This is showing suspense through waiting and with the waiting comes
The Sniper has more suspense because it has at least three conflicts, were as the Flowers has only two conflicts. The Sniper has at least three pieces of suspense, when he lit the cigarette, when he had to kill the enemy with a revolver, and when he found out he had killed his brother. The Flowers has only two pieces when Myop found the dead body, also when she found out the dead man had been hung. If a story has one conflict to lead up to, it will not have as much suspense as a story that has multiple conflicts. The Flowers only has about two pieces of suspense in the story. When Myop first steps on the skull and the text says, “It was then she stepped smack into his eyes.” Additionally, when she finds out he had been hung the text says, “she
"The Sniper" places a strong emphasis on the evils of war, and yet paints a vivid image of mankind's qualities and their society. Employing the technique of describing one particular sniper to symbolise a general subject, readers are able to gain a deep insight into the evils of war. In this story, the assembly of setting, contrasting characters and themes of fanaticism and division of loyalties are vital to conveying the horror of war. On the other hand, "The Sniper" also discusses the power of war, depicting it as the decider of life and death for men. Its force is further emphasised when neighbours are turned into enemies under war's influence.
However in the story “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty- there is one very unfortunate yet important to the plot, death. This story is based in Dublin, Ireland where a IRA sniper and a Free Stater are fighting on the rooftops. The protagonist successfully shoots down his opponent, which at the time is thought to be good. “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face. ”(O'Flaherty,
In 1923, the story “The Sniper” was written by Liam O'Flaherty. The story is about a Civil war in Ireland where there were 2 snipers, shooting at each other and they were both on a rooftop with long-range weapons and they don’t know each other but at the end one of the sniper found out that he killed his own brother. The author uses irony and the conflict between the sniper and the other sniper just to tell us the main message which is that we shouldn’t fight each other, we should fight together because we live in the same country and we should fight for our country.
Through literature, Liam O’Flaherty, the author of the short story The Sniper, clearly illustrates how horrific and destructive war really is. He illustrates the appalling agony of the Irish civil war through a dramatic story of two brothers against each other in the war. Through the the author's writing, readers can conclude that the theme of The Sniper is that war destroys families. O’Flaherty sets emphasis on this theme by using many strong literary devices. The literary devices used that apply the most emphasis on the theme are situational irony, setting, and the author's use of direct characterization .