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Irony In The Short Story 'The Sniper'

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Through the use of irony in the short story “The Sniper” by Liam O'Flaherty reveals one of the true meanings and lessons of the story that everyone is human no one is a machine. The sense of remorse hits the sniper after he completes his mission of eliminating the enemy sniper. After the enemy’s lifeless body fell over the edge of the building “The lust of battle died in him. He became bitten by remorse.” The sniper feels a common human feeling after he completes his mission of taking out the other sniper, the irony is that he feels remorse for the enemy sniper who tried to kill him numerous amounts of time throughout the day, he felt remorse for the person he was tasked to kill in the first place who was on the side of the free states who
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According to “19 Most Ironic Facts of all Time,” by Buzzfeed, in 1985, a man in New Orleans drowned at a party thrown by lifeguards. The party was thrown to celebrate a year at the pool with no drowning’s. As many know, life has many events that include irony. Irony could include families, vacation, or just strange things that happen throughout a family.

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In the story The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell, irony plays a big part in establishing the characters and it emphasizes how different General Zaroff and Rainsford are. It also shows how the context may change throughout the story in the sense that the hunters become the hunted and the enemies thrive with each other. It changes Rainsford perception on the animals he has hunted for sport when he quickly becomes the hunted. Overall, the author, Richard Connell uses irony very well to show emphasize different points in the story. One clear example of how the author uses irony in his work is through the conversation between sailor, Whitney and game hunter, Rainford.

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264 Words | 2 Pages

In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque’s use of irony and metaphors to prove that the horrors and evils of war outweigh any positives. When Paul, the main character, and the other men in his company move to the front lines to lay down barbed wire they are shot at and find protection in a cemetery. Paul remarks, “I merely crawl still farther under the coffin, it shall protect me, thought Death himself lies in it.” (67). Paul knows that his only protection from the shootings is inside of one of the coffins, which ironically, is where he would end up if he was shot there.

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There are many different types of stories out there, some which consist of love and others loss. Many people seem to think it is important to have sappy love in every good story. They think this because they have a lack of patience in plot building and need a certain amount drama to keep them entertained. However, it is possible to have a great story without any of that fluff. O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” takes a different approach in a good story by introducing a slew of crazy irony.

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386 Words | 2 Pages

Do you see “The Most Dangerous Game” as an literary effective short story? Richard Connell was born October 17th, 1893 in Poughkeepsie, New York. Legendary hunter Bob Rainsford is shipwrecked on the perilous reefs surrounding a mysterious island, he finds himself the guest of the reclusive and eccentric Count Zaroff. While he is very gracious at first, Zaroff eventually forces Rainsford and two other shipwreck survivors, brother and sister Eve and Martin Towbridge, to participate in a sadistic game of cat and mouse in which they are the prey and he is the hunter. Richard Connell in the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” makes effective use of literary devices.

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761 Words | 4 Pages

The author uses irony to show that the soldiers are no longer men- they are pawns of the German army. They march and shoot and kill, but they are sick in the mind and heavy in the heart, yet there is nothing they can do to help themselves. The irony is that they are no longer human and yet they fight for the completely human at the top of the food chain, so to speak. They are only out there because of the greedy Kaiser and the greedy leaders of other countries.

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1596 Words | 7 Pages

I felt a kind of thrill”(Klay,47). The marine tells the journalist what the journalist expects of him when killing someone by saying he felt “recoil.” However he reveals to the readers that he enjoyed killing as it was a “thrill” to him. If the marine were to tell the journalist that he enjoyed killing, the journalist would feel uncomfortable with the fact that he enjoys killing. Klay demonstrates situational irony by making the readers think killing is a disgusting feeling to the marine; in reality it brings this marine a thrill.

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The irony was Sam was shot for stealing his own cattle. Just like his father, Life, Sam was shot by the side he showed loyalty and devotion too. Sam died a dishonorable death. Tim became melancholy over the innocence of Sam. The generals did not believe Tim’s testimony about the truth.

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564 Words | 3 Pages

In Richard’s Wright’s short story The Man Who Was Almost a Man, the are many examples of irony throughout the text. It is shown throughout the plot by using the main character, Dave. Irony is when a word or action is used to have an opposite or different meaning. In this text, there are many occurrences of situational irony. Richard Wright uses irony throughout his short story to express the point of manhood and the mental development of his character Dave who is seventeen years old.

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1137 Words | 5 Pages

In war no one is your enemy because there is no one that you need to hurt. In The Sniper and All the lights we cannot see, both the boys from All the lights we cannot see and the republican sniper feel for their enemy. They show empathy towards someone who they are meant to hurt. Frederick in all the lights we cannot see shows empathy through discovering his orders in partaking in the prisoners torture. Not only this

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672 Words | 3 Pages

In the ordinary hours of life I try not to dwell on it, but now and then, when I’m reading a newspaper or just sitting alone in a room, I’ll look up and see the young man coming out of the morning fog” (Ambush). Tim O’Brien was a father, a son, and a husband, yet he was also able to kill without giving thought to the action. Afterwards, however, when presented with his family, friends, and other civilians, Tim realized the gravity of the deaths he caused. Another example of paradox was the murder that in Queens, New York, around the same period as the Vietnam War. A criminal stabbed a woman outside her home, and out of the thirty-eight people in the neighborhood, zero people called the police or helped the woman.

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1124 Words | 5 Pages

A similarity in “The Sniper” is when the sniper realized he had took a risky shot

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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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506 Words | 3 Pages

“The sniper look at his enemy falling, underline and shuttered. The lust of battle died in him.” This is the end result when violence and assumption overcome us: we react in the right away. From the short story, “The Sniper”, we learn that assumption and violence can cause us to act in regrettable ways. The enemy sniper kills innocent people, the sniper fakes his death, and kills the enemy sniper.

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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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