The Importance Of Suspense In 'The Sniper'

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There was a frequent use of suspense in each story, the story with the most suspense was”The sniper” by Liam O'Flaherty . This story has the most suspense because the use of descriptions in the intense parts made the story suspenseful. One time that there was a large amount of suspense was after he was shot by the other sniper in the shoulder. The intensity of this section such as when, “Quickly he drew hi knife from his pocket, opened it on the breastwork of the parapet, and ripped open the sleeve. There was a small hole where the bullet had entered. On the other side there was no hole. The bullet had lodged in the bone.” The reader was most likely feeling bad for the character and the fact that he had to go through this experience, and might have been able to relate this part to a movie or TV show that they have seen. …show more content…

In one particular spot when the sniper made the decision to smoke his cigarette. Also descriptions such as “A paroxysm of pain swept through him” contributed to the suspense in the story because the pain that the sniper was going through was felt through the reader and which overall produced the feeling of suspense. The other two stories, “the Flowers” and “The dogs could teach me” had good suspense, such as in “The Dogs Could Teach Me” after the boy was hurt and landed at the bottom of the waterfall and was explaining his pain and the reader probably began to wonder how he would be able to get to help, which made the ending even better. Both “The Flowers” and “The Dogs Could Teach Me” seemed to have more action in their main part of the story and not as much suspense as “The Sniper”. The writers in both stories “The Flowers” and “The Dogs Could Teach Me” should have made their stories with a better balance of suspense in all parts, beginning, middle and