Brother vs brother, friend vs friend. The United States, Ireland, the Koreas, Italy all of these countries have faced civil war in one way or another. Ideology rips apart friends, families and neighbors in the most subtle way. The two short stories “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty and “Cranes” by Hwang Son-won expressed this theme. Both of them have similarities and differences, but overall they seem alike on the outside but different on the inside. The conflicts shape these stories molding them into two different themes of literature.
The basis of these stories is similar two friends meeting in an unfortunate circumstance. A young IRA (Irish Republican Army) Sniper sits upon a rooftop in Dublin during the Irish Civil War. Minutes later he
…show more content…
“Cranes” dealt with this bigger overall conflict.“Cranes” deals with this more than “The Sniper”. In “Cranes” it breaks down to friendship or orders. Songsam finds out Tokchae his childhood friend is a communist leader who is under political arrest (Sun-won 2). His initial thought was that he was a war criminal killing Capitalists and South Koreans. While they are walking Songsam asks Tokchae about how many people he’s killed, avoided the question he reveals he was forced into the vice-chairmen position (Sun-won 2). Songsam tells Tokchae to go to the field to rouse up some cranes which Tokchae believes he’s going to get executed. Yet he lets him go choosing friendship over orders or humanity over war. You can put this in a bigger perspective relating to all wars and conflict. This is one of the ways “Cranes” was different than “The Sniper.” Now for the difference for “The Sniper” is that humanity over war wasn’t there. He had to kill the Turret Gunner, Informer and other Sniper (O’Flaherty). It was life or death for him. The Sniper did feel a feeling of humanity over war after killing his own brother. He would’ve believed that if he was more humane maybe his brother would still be alive. War kills, humanity lives what one will the soldier