The Sniper By Liam O Flaherty Analysis

“Only the dead have seen the end of the war, “ says a renowned philosopher, George Santayana. Every single time when the war takes place, millions of innocent civilians are sacrificed under the jackboots of soldiers and a wide variety of constructions are completely annihilated. These brutal aspects of war become more tragic and heart-breaking in the civil war, where two sides have the same ethnicity and nationality. The short story, The Sniper, by Liam O’Flaherty also takes place during the Irish Civil War, the time when Ireland was divided into two powers: Republicans who supported Ireland’s merger with Great Britain and free-staters who supported the independence of the nation. Throughout the story, O’Flaherty revealed the horrors, tragedy,

At the beginning of the story, the author fosters the dismal ambiance by illustrating the sky as “enveloped in darkness but for the dim light of the moon that shone through fleecy clouds.” The phrase, “enveloped in darkness” suggests that the atmosphere is completely overwhelmed by the darkness, which has a connotation of hopelessness and despair. Moreover, “dim light” - a fainting hope - alludes that hope and bliss are fading away from the world and their influence is diminishing while being replaced with the despair of darkness. These phrases imply that the dreadful scenes of the war, which are filled with despair, suffering, and disconsolation would last forever as the term “envelope” refers to the permanent dominance. Furthermore, the author conveys the solitude and complete annihilation by employing the simile, “like dogs barking on lone farms.” By comparing the sound of rifles to the dogs barking on lone farms, the author implies that the only sound existing in the world is the sound of rifles: a symbol of violence and devastation. Additionally, the “lone farm,” which is a place where only animals live, refers to the cities that have been completely annihilated after the various fierce battles, without any traces of humans left. Thus, the author established a tranquil but devastating setting with the purpose in order to indicate the

At the exposition of the story, he establishes the gloomy and hopeless setting that seems to last forever. Then, by revealing the fact that the sniper is a student, he alludes to the irrationality of the war where daily life becomes abnormal. Moreover, the author ended the story with the tragic death of the brother to highlight the futility of war where only the victims exist. O’Flaherty’s portrayal of the eccentric, futile, and disconsolate natures of war reveals that he perceives war as an axis of evil that forces a wide range of people to sacrifice without noticing the reasons for their death. In a nutshell, O’Flaherty firmly believes that there can be no genuine victors in war and that only victims