Liam O’ Flaherty does an outstanding job of creating a shocking and tense atmosphere within The Sniper. Throughout The Sniper, the author puts the Republican sniper in many close call situations that could potentially kill him. “A bullet flattened itself against the parapet of the roof... There was a flash and a bullet whizzed over his head,” (Page 1). When the sniper goes to peak after the first shot, the reader wonders if he is going to get hit with a bullet, which adds the atmosphere of .
While on guard duty, the main character sees an enemy soldier but he starts to get very suspenseful and nervous, “-imagination, but there was also the reality of what was happening in my stomach… I tried to swallow whatever was rising from my stomach, which tasted like lemonade, something fruity and sour.” (O’Brien 62), him feeling his stomach wanting to vomit is a sign of suspense. The main character starts to get fearful and isn’t thinking straight, “I was terrified. There were no thoughts about killing.
The main character wants to take the life of the old man cause he hates the old man’s dreadfully creepy eye. But the main character's problem is that he can't get himself to kill the old man without seeing his eye. So he shines a light on the old man's eye and soon attacks. Suspense is the excitement or anxiety of uncertainty of what will happen next. Through the author’s three techniques of suspense he creates a great creepy mood.
When the sniper is wondering about who he killed he thinks, “Perhaps he has been his own company before the split of the war.” (4) Without the emphasis on the sniper wondering if he had known his enemy, the story would have moved on and not ended with the surprising manner intended. However, with O’Flaherty’s use of foreshadowing, the reader’s thoughts are satisfied and want to know the true ending of the story. O’Flaherty essentially indicates that the war has created such a divide, the consequential outcome can never be predicted or expected. Soon after the sniper fired his shot, “he became bitten by remorse” and “he revolted to the sight of the shattered mass of his dead enemy.
In the story “The Sniper”, adversity was demonstrated when the republican sniper faced the problem of being in a war and having a high chance of death, but was
In Will Jenkins’ “Night Drive,” the author uses suspense to warn the reader to be careful whom they trust. Jenkins puts a huge piece of suspense when he reveals when Madge is thinking about driving to Colchester on the same road Mrs.Tabor was killed on. Will Jenkins builds suspense about Eunice by jher asking Madge if she carries a pistol with her: “Mrs. Haley,” said the girl’s flat voice, “do you carry a pistol, driving at night”? This quote makes the reader feel suspense because it causes the reader to wonder why she would ask that question. Jenkins also makes the short story suspenseful when Eunice lights the cigarette for Madge.
The sniper has no choice and shoots and kills old lady and gunner, only to get shot by the enemy and he faked his death. The peak is when the republican sniper kills the free stater sniper. Next is the republican sniper sees the enemy sniper fall off roof and decides that he is going to run to try to see who he killed. At the end of the story, he finds out that he has just killed his own brother. This created suspense because you never know what’s going to happen next.
Sniper starts to have flashbacks of the times him and his brother had before the shooting and he realizes all the pain he has caused all of his family. Him and his brother was not on the best term growing up but he wanted to make amends with him but the brother did not really care that much. As time past, Sniper finally tells his parents that he had killed his brother because they thought for the longest that someone else had killed him. Finally, he felt relief that he came clean but the parents was not to pleased to what they were hearing so they disowned him.
Suspense is a state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen. For instance, page 173 states, “And this I did for seven long nights- every night just at midnight- but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me; but his Evil Eye”. Page 173 has many examples of suspense but, the main one was that he wouldn’t kill the man for seven days. He was safe because, his eye was closed but, this then makes the reader fear for the man because, what if one of his eyes opened.
War curses all humanity which leaves us with diseases or even worse. First, war causes family to kill each other. In the novel “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty It shows that war can cause family to fight against each other. “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brothers face.” (O’Flaherty 10) War can be a very painful and dangerous thing.
This shows how the sniper’s actions without thought affect him for the worse. O’Flaherty establishes the theme of “The Sniper” by using description and irony. After the sniper turns over the dead body, he realizes what he has done. He was not thinking when he shot the enemy.
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
Without craft moves made by the author, the story wouldn’t even be a legitimate story, just some thoughts put together. Two out of the many very important craft moves in The Sniper are the setting/time period and the point of view. The setting and time period is very crucial to The Sniper. The book takes place in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, during the Irish Civil War. In the beginning of the story, the author paints a very clear picture of the setting, allowing you to vividly imagine the conditions that they are in during the short story.
The theme was created when he finds out the man he shot was his brother. This could easily happen in real life. Fear could lead to destructive decisions, and in this case, fear led the sniper into shooting his own
The use of fiction as a tool to educate and inform adolescents is as widespread today (Meltzer 2001). The YA themes should appeal the interests, the age groups, ability to explore the world complexities and problems encountered in teenage (Clark et. al 2001).However, the YA novel has evolved so much in the last three decades that topics ranging from drug addiction to sexual orientation can be found in any contemporary adolescent novel ( Carl, 2001; Glasgow, 2001; Mikulecky, 1998; Salvner, 1998; St. Clair, 1995). Use of ‘edgy’ content including violence, sex, profanity and other potentially objectionable content has been aroused a controversy.
