The Sniper Theme Essay

518 Words3 Pages

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. He goes and finds out that the enemy sniper he shot was his brother. I believe the theme of the story ¨The Sniper¨ by Liam O'Flaherty is that fear can lead to destructive decisions. The theme that fear can lead to destructive decisions is introduced when he kills the man in the turret and kills the woman. He shoots the man and woman because he is scared of what the man and woman could do to him. In the story, it tells you how he shoots them. ¨The sniper raised his rifle and fired. The head fell heavily on the turret wall. The woman darted toward the side of the street. The sniper fired again. The …show more content…

After he shot and killed the enemy sniper, he wanted to be sure he killed him so he went to see him. He got shot at by machine guns. When the firing stopped, he went to the body. He turned it over and it was his brother. The theme was made clear when the story said ¨The sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother´s face.¨(Page 9) His heart probably sank when he found out the man he shot and killed was his brother. The theme of the story ¨The Sniper¨ by Liam O'Flaherty shows us that fear can lead to destructive decisions. In the beginning, the sniper kills the man in the turret and kills the woman. Later on in the story, he shot the ´enemy´ sniper with the revolver. 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