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How Does Liam O Flaherty Use Irony In The Sniper

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Within Liam O’Flaherty’s short story, “The Sniper”, there are two literary devices that greatly impact the meaning of the story. These two literary devices are irony and mood, and together they show the reader how difficult war can be and how it can pull friends and families apart. While reading the text, the reader can feel how tired, lethargic, yet exciting war can be. On page 1, paragraph 3, the sniper was “eating a sandwich hungrily” because he “had eaten nothing since morning”. In this paragraph, readers can feel how the thrill of war can overcome a person, taking over their actions, emotions, and feelings. Irony also plays a big part in “The Sniper”, helping support the meaning of the story through the theme. At the end of the story in paragraphs 25-27, the sniper decides to look at the body of the man he had just killed, and to his surprise, he finds that the man he had just shot dead was his brother. Throughout “The Sniper” O’Flaherty is trying to convey the theme of “fighting for what you believe in does not always turn out the way you want it to be” This theme comes about within the story as the sniper constantly has the mindset to kill anything in sight, because he is trying to defend himself and fight for the Republic. The sniper …show more content…

In war, there will be collateral damage in which strangers, friends, and families could be hurt or torn apart. You or someone you may know could die. People fight for what they believe in during war, for their religion, for their freedom, or their political views. Yet at the same time, these people are fighting for their lives, so they would do anything in their power to defend themselves or others. In “The Sniper”, the man kills his very own brother. In war, we can end up fighting our own brothers and sisters, friends, and other people in our everyday lives. Yet what matters is fighting for what we believe in, no matter the

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Through the usage of graphical features used by Xan Brooks, it reinforces the idea of the portrayal of killing shown in the American sniper is morally unacceptable and is not accurate. At the top of the film review is a photograph of ‘Chris Kyle’ portrayed by Bradley Cooper. In the image, Chris is sitting in a military aircraft, facing a rectangle object covered with the United States flag symbolising independence and liberty. The object is presumably a coffin holding a comrade lost in the brutality of war. The position of the coffins show the reader how with war, death is never far behind - this is shown by how the two coffins look as though they are following each other.

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431 Words | 2 Pages

The protagonist in the story does not have a name, but it is a soldier in battle, and he is very strong. During this time period in the story your own family on the battlefield could be on the other side. The sniper as a protagonist has to be strong, “He ground his teeth to overcome the pain... He broke the neck of the iodine bottle and let the bitter fluid drip into the wound... pain swept through him”. The sniper is strong because a lot of people could not have done that, get shot and fix it by yourself.

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510 Words | 3 Pages

Cant we all just get along? These two stories “The Sniper” and “Cranes” show the really bad aspects of war and how they can really effect humans. In the story “The Sniper” the theme for the sniper is “War knows no boundaries, age, sex, location, time of day, or family ties. In cranes it talks about how the two friends in the story, one becomes a rebel the other a government worker. “Cranes” was written by Hwang Sunwon and translated by Peter H. Lee.

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853 Words | 4 Pages

“I’ve lived the literal meaning of the ‘land of the free’ and ‘home of the brave.’ It’s not corny for me. I feel it in my heart. I feel it in my chest. Even at a ball game, when someone talks during the anthem or doesn’t take off his hat, it pisses me off.

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280 Words | 2 Pages

It has been said that “in war, there is no winner.” Liam O’Flaherty’s short story “The Sniper” addresses this issue. I believe that statement is true for many reasons. When you’re serving you can lose friends, family, and your sanity.

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571 Words | 3 Pages

Due to this he cannot use his rifle, he must now be very strategic in order to kill the other sniper and survive. The main character would not have survived if he did not have better strategy than his opponents because, “She was pointing to the roof where the sniper lay (2).” The women made it very clear and obvious

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594 Words | 3 Pages

At the beginning of the story, the sniper was so excited, he couldn't eat. It was night in Dublin while he was just waiting. The author states,¨His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but 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.¨(page 58) This statement infers that the man has killed many people and has no remorse.

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1321 Words | 6 Pages

The sniper then left the roof to go report to his commander but got curious and went to see if he knew the man that he had shot. When he turned the body over he realized the man he shot was his brother. O’ Flaherty ended the story this way to help get the meaning of this story across to the audience more

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502 Words | 3 Pages

Upon descending from the rooftop, the sniper decides to see his target’s face. “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face” (O’Flaherty 10). The sniper shows that war curses humanity by ripping families apart. Families are often split during war, especially in civil wars.

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231 Words | 1 Pages

Sniper expresses this through his confusion by not knowing why he shot his brother. The sniper does not know why he did it and then continues to say that he was angry at him because of something he had done before. Furthermore, the author conveys that war has no boundaries through separation.

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422 Words | 2 Pages

War is not just shooting guns and throwing grenades. War is a fight between people or upon themselves. War is a constant curse because in the end there will always be an injury. First, within the short story “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty the author depicts a young man who is scared but is fighting for the freedom of his country as a sniper. “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face.”

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583 Words | 3 Pages

The Republican Sniper kills both a man and an elderly woman, before he kills the enemy sniper. After he kills the enemy sniper, “the sniper looked at his enemy falling and he shuddered.” The word “shuddered” reveals that the sniper was in a sense of disgust when seeing his enemy fall their death. The sniper’s reaction implies that this is the first war has been involved in, and the killings he commits is different than what he is used to in his daily life. The war had been occupying so much of his time; “…he began to gibber to himself, cursing the war, cursing himself, cursing everybody.”

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624 Words | 3 Pages

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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449 Words | 2 Pages

The theme of the story in “The Sniper” is war reduces humans to mere objects,either shoot or be shot. The characters in this story are realistic because to them it is the same way, they either shoot one another or be shot. According to the HistoryofIreland.com people who were friends had to turn against each other and not look back. The theme of this story is that the war changes people, they are trained that the enemy means nothing, no matter who they are they are just targets nothing more.

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1116 Words | 5 Pages

In the short story The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty, a main theme is that war is cruel. This is supported by many details within the story. War makes people do things that they normally wouldn’t do, mostly because it is their duty to protect what they believe in or their country. For example, the

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