The Sniper Irony

“Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.” John Fitzgerald Kennedy stated to the United Nation General Assembly on September 25, 1961. War causes people to turn on people so we need to stop it, before no one is left. There are many similarities yet differences between “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty and “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy by conveying them through three topics, plot, irony, and theme.

A similarity between O’Flaherty’s “The Sniper” and Hardy’s “The Man He Killed” is that the protagonist are both soldiers. For instance, “Then when the smoke cleared he peered across and uttered a cry of joy. His enemy had been hit”(O’Flaherty 208). In other words, soldiers are happy when killing their enemies, especially

For instance, “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother's face”(O’Flaherty 208). In other words, looking into his own brothers face caused pain and tragedy and tells how war can tear family apart. Furthermore, “Was out of work -- had sold his traps -- No other reason why”(Hardy 15-16). This causes pain and suffering because the soldier had no money and had no other way to make money so he had to go into war. The difference involving theme in both works is that in “The Sniper” it turned brother against brother and in “The Man He Had Killed” it turned possible friends and friends against each other. In “ The Sniper” it states, “He wondered did he know him. Perhaps he had been in his own company before the split in the army”(O’Flaherty 208). This states, he did not know he had killed his own brother, this proves that war can turn brother against brother. Another reason, “Had he and I but met by some old ancient inn, we should have sat us down to wet right many a nipperkin”(Hardy 1-4). In other words, if he and the man had met they could have sat down and became friends and have many beers, showing that war can turn possible friends against each other. In conclusion, war causes you to turn on people that are important to you or could turn out to be important and tears people