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The Sniper Use Of Twist Endings

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The use of twist endings in the “The Sniper”, “The Diamond Necklace”, and “Just Lather, That's All”

Twist endings in a story are powerful; they cause the readers to re-evaluate everything they knew about the story and think back with a different emotional stance. The Sniper, The Diamond Necklace, and Just Lather, That's All, contain twist endings that all leave the readers stunned. Liam O’Flaherty, Guy De Maupassant, and Hernando Tellez all had the right idea when including this literary curveball into their stories as it gives the reader a way to experience the same story in two different ways. Twist endings have a way of exposing new emotions both positive and negative. In these stories negative outcomes and unnecessary struggles appear …show more content…

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, The Sniper)This is where the readers and the protagonist in the story both realise that the concour of the antagonist is not actually a good outcome but instead a disheartening, negative outcome. If the Information was revealed sooner the protagonist would have changed his motives and instead of killing his opponent he would have been trying to communicate his identity to his brother. Once the protagonist turned over the body to realise it was his brother it is assured that there is a monumental amount of guilt felt by the protagonist. “The lust of battle died in him. He became bitten by remorse.” (O'Flaherty, The Sniper) Even before the sniper knew that his assailant doubled as his brother the fact that he had killed someone had him feeling guilty leading the readers to understand that his guilt was tremendously intensified once the delayed information was disclosed. There is no doubt that the protagonist felt a great deal of regret and would go back and change his goal in the situation. “ He took steady aim. His hand trembled with eagerness. Pressing his lips together, he took a deep breath through his nostrils and fired.”(O'Flaherty, The Sniper) This is the very moment the protagonist would wish to go back to and change. The sniper would indubitably wish that he knew it was his brother sooner thus allowing him to change his course of action from killing to either letting himself be killed or

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