Twenty-three days is a long time to stay in and worry about being next on the shooters list. “The day of October 2, 2002, the beltway snipers began terrorizing people (Fbi.gov).” The beltway snipers, who are they, what crime did they commit, and theories of why they committed the crime is what this paper is about. The beltway snipers were, “John Muhammad, 41 and Lee Boyd Malvo, 17 (Fbi.gov.)”
According to Dictonary.com adversity is “an adverse or unfortunate event or circumstance”. In two short stories the main characters have to deal with Adversity and they both have too uses there smarts to conquer it. The the Short Story “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty and “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell both of the main characters have to think of a way to outsmart their enemies. In “The Sniper” A Republican Sniper was laying watch on a roof. A cross the way there is another sniper wanting him dead.
Suspense The story that demonstrated the best suspense out of the three stories, The Sniper by Liam O’Flahtery, The Dogs Could Teach Me by Gary Paulsen, and The Flowers by Alice Walker was The Sniper, by LIam O’Flahtery. There are many ways in which O’Flahtery develops suspense in the story. One place where suspense was built was in the fourth paragraph. He says, “Almost immediately, a bullet flattened itself against the parapet of the roof.”
More specifically, the novel depicts the adverse effects war has on soldiers during the war and after the war. O’Brien quickly shows the crippling effects of war through himself. He has been ripped from everything he knows and placed into a foreign land, in which, his life is constantly at risk. As the story progresses there begins to be a shift from the war, to life after it. It is again immediately apparent how difficult it was for soldiers to adjust back to normal life.
I do not believe that O’Brien believes there is truth in war. There are many examples from both stories that show O’Brien does not believe there is truth in war. I think the throughout “The Things They Carried” the soldiers are lying to themselves, they carry everything to make themselves feel safer even though they things they carry will often not help them survive. The author gives the reason for why they carried the things they did. In one instance of describing everything they carried and the weight of it the author says, “But they carried it anyway, partly for safety, partly for the illusion of safety.”
Adversity is something that causes someone issues,problems,and difficulties. It affects everyone in a different way, it could make someone turn their life around or lead to more problems. In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game”, by Richard Connell, the character Rainsford was being faced with a challenge that put his life at risk. Rainsford got stranded on an island where he met General Zaroff who was planning to hunt him. Luckily, Rainsford was an experienced hunter, but The General had a lot more resources.
James Mercer Langston Hughes was the first African American to achieve national prominence, and the figure of such stature in the black community. His influence and ideas were inescapable, as he saw himself as a poet for an entire nation. Hughes role model, Walt Whitman helped to give him the ideas of the optimistic vision of America and how to achieve and accomplish some of the things he did in his life. Langston Hughes inspired many people and expressed the African American spirt and soul in his works.
One similarity in O’Flaherty’s piece is the sniper’s thoughts about how war is painful and can rip people apart. “His teeth chattered, he began to gibber to himself, cursing the war, cursing himself, cursing everybody...and looked into his brother’s face” (O’Flaherty, 208). This quote talks about how the sniper felt after seeing his enemy fall off the roof from being shot and then once he identifies the body as his brother,he realizes how war can truly tear families apart. Another similarity based on theme in the poem “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy. The soldier realizes near the end of the poem that war is full of suffering and can tear friends apart.
He gives us a vivid description of the sniper that makes us wonder about him, “His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of a fanatic. They were deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death” (1). These two sentences give us information of the sniper based solely on the words of the author. The way O’Flaherty describes him makes us think about what he does and who he actually is outside of being a sniper.
E This story looks into the psychological effects of killing somebody from the point of view of the killer. It shows us how we can never dismiss the death of another person as an unfortunate necessity in war. During a time of war soldiers are trained to kill for no other reason than they are the nation’s enemy. When O’Brien kills the man, he is shocked to discover that
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
If you knew who you were shooting at, would you pull the trigger? In the story called ¨The Sniper¨ by Liam O'Flaherty, a man, who is referred to as ´the sniper´ is about a man who is in a war in Dublin. The first thing that happens is when he shoots a man in a turret and a woman. Then he gets shot in the arm. Then he shoots an enemy sniper.
The movie American Sniper follows the life and military career of one of the United States’ best snipers in history, Chris Kyle. Kyle grew up in Texas and joined the military as a young man, enlisting in the Navy SEALs. After the 9/11 attacks, Kyle served four tours in Iraq and amassed the most kills in U.S. military sniper history. After his tours, Kyle returned home to his wife and ran a program helping disabled veterans. In 2013, however, Kyle was shot by one of the veterans he was trying to help who was suffering from PTSD.
In the short story The Sniper, Liam O’Flaherty recounts a story of an Irish sniper fighting for the republican army during the Irish Civil War. He wrote this short story based on his experience with time at war. Liam o’flaherty illustrates how war can reduce the value of family and human lives, betrayal, and suspense. In this essay I will be discussing these major themes as well as comparing this story to books such as The Odyssey and others containing similar themes. This essay also will discuss how suspense is used in Liam O’Flaherty’s The Sniper.
In Liam O’Flaherty’s The Sniper, the main character, a sniper, is in the middle of a civil war in Dublin, Ireland. It is his assigned duty to assassinate anyone on the the other side of the war, no matter who they are. This creates a huge conflict, considering that the sniper ends up killing his brother. This supports the central theme that war is cruel, and this can be supported by the craft elements of the dialogue used and the setting of the story.
