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Villains In O 'Flaherty's The Sniper'

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When it comes down to politics, people are usually willing to fight tooth and nail for what they believe in, but most people wouldn’t kill a beloved family member, and the Sniper isn’t any different. Even though The Sniper would never yearn to kill his brother, he did, but at the same it was probably the right thing to do when faced with his circumstances. In “The Sniper,” neither the Sniper nor his brother are villains because they both fight for what they believe in and neither side in the Irish Civil War is inherently wrong, but some readers may interpret the brother as being a villain due his willingness to shoot an Irish Republican sniper, which adds to the story because it doesn’t give the reader a distinct feeling of success or failure. …show more content…

This uncertainty of who the villain is stumps the reader and doesn’t give them a specific feeling of success or closure. When looking at Irish history in more detail, the Irish Civil war was essentially fought over indepence from other nations and how land was going to be split up so neither side was commiting a terrible crime which makes neither side definitively wrong. In this war, the brothers were simply fighting for their opinions which is always the right thing to do, but they take it to the extreme which leads to death. Some readers may disagree with these points and may call either one of the brothers a villain, but when taking into consideration that they did not know who they were fighting this idea makes less sense. These aspects of the story greatly enhance the overall feeling of the story by giving the reader an uneasy and troubling feeling that few other short stories can do as effectively. These points support the overall statement that neither the Sniper or his brother are true villains in Liam O’Flaherty’s masterpiece “The

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The Sniper reveals to everyone that the main character, the sniper, is also on different sides of his friend in the Irish civil war, if you consider a brother a

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This shows how the sniper’s actions without thought affect him for the worse. O’Flaherty establishes the theme of “The Sniper” by using description and irony. After the sniper turns over the dead body, he realizes what he has done. He was not thinking when he shot the enemy.

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This violence was brought about by assumption, when really they were brothers all along. The sniper realizes, and regrets his actions at the end. War and conflict is about protecting loved ones, and about defending your rights and liberties, but we must be careful not to let these conflicts blind our minds with assumption, or violence will destroy

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Without craft moves made by the author, the story wouldn’t even be a legitimate story, just some thoughts put together. Two out of the many very important craft moves in The Sniper are the setting/time period and the point of view. The setting and time period is very crucial to The Sniper. The book takes place in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, during the Irish Civil War. In the beginning of the story, the author paints a very clear picture of the setting, allowing you to vividly imagine the conditions that they are in during the short story.

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