“The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty is a historical fiction story following the events of the Irish Civil War. The main character is a sniper for the Republicans. In the story, he is forced to kill three people but afterward it says he is disgusted with himself. In this story Liam O’Flaherty supports the theme of violence will change people for the worse by using descriptive phrases and the character’s inner thoughts. The biggest problem in the story is how the sniper has to kill his enemies. This can easily be seen during times of action in the story and the aftermath. First, the sniper has to kill the gunner in an armored car and a civilian informer. The sniper enjoys the moment before he kills the enemy sniper and is even eager to do it. O’Flaherty wrote, “He took a steady aim. His hand trembled with eagerness. Pressing his lips together,he took a deep breath through his nostrils and fired” (3). This quote proves that the sniper enjoys the war in the heat of the moment. This is shown by the sentence where the sniper’s hand trembles with eagerness. Normally, if someone is eager to do something, it means that they are excited about it and want to do something. This can be translated in the quote to mean that the sniper is excited about killing the enemy sniper. These thoughts alone would land any normal people in a mental asylum. The sniper even did this without showing a hint of regret. Then he has to kill an enemy sniper. However, as soon as these two events are over the sniper is …show more content…
Most people believe that this lesson does not portray to many people in today’s world, but it does. Everyday people get into arguments and sometimes fights which slowly changes people to be more aggressive and agitated. Will you heed the lesson O’Flaherty is teaching, or will you choose to let violence corrupt and change who you