Literary Analysis the Short Story 'The Sniper'' Penned by Liam O'Flaherty

In the short story 'The Sniper'' penned by Liam O'Flaherty, a Republican sniper grips his gun and hides on the roof of a building silently and with a purpose, waiting to eliminate the enemy. The storyline takes place in Dublin, and the city is depicted in a way that it leaves gloomy, suspenseful, and hopeless images, revealing that war is a scary situation. O'Flaherty devotes the full first paragraph to identifying the setting and establishing the mood of the narrative. For eg, 'Dublin lay enveloped in darkness.' When the author uses the word 'darkness' it immediately produces feelings of anxiety and uncertainty in the readers' minds, as well as a tense environment. The line 'The dim light of the moon shone through fleecy clouds, casting a pale light' conveys a sense of alienation as the moon has often been considered to be a lonely figure. The inciting force of the story is shown when the Republican sniper recklessly smokes a cigarette, the light would illuminate to reveal the sniper’s spot on the roof. The Rising Action occurs right after, as the bullet whizzes by the sniper's head, which makes him dive to hide from the bullets. He managed to spot the other sniper on the opposite roof when he saw a glow from the rifle, but he couldn't see the precise location of the other sniper since he was undercover. At about the same time, an armored car drove over the bridge and up the street, interrupted by an elderly lady. It soon became clear that the elderly woman was an informant and reported the location of the sniper to the man in the armored car, but the sniper immediately disposed of him and the elderly woman whose body lay in the gutter. The Major Crisis was discovered after The Republican sniper is struck by the enemy sniper's bullet in his arm. In extreme agony, he can no longer handle his rifle. He pours an antiseptic on his wound, which is also excruciatingly painful. The sniper needed a way to kill the other sniper so that he could flee to the camp before dawn, as the other sniper blocked his escape path and he could not be found wounded in the morning. To escape, he lays his rifle on the side of the roof with his cap at its end; the enemy sniper fires at it, and the Republican sniper cleverly makes it look like he was shot dead. The climax or peak of emotion and suspense of the story is when the sniper had outsmarted his opponent after pretending to be dead and dropped his rifle to the ground. The other sniper had fallen for his clever ruse and had come out into the open, his silhouette clearly visible. The Republican sniper took advantage of this and used his undamaged arm to shoot at the other sniper with his revolver, and after the smoke had cleared and his arm settled, it is revealed that he had fatally shot the Free State sniper. The falling action is seen to be when the enemy sniper was killed, and the sniper left to report to his commander. While he was leaving, he had felt a sudden curiosity as to who he killed, and decided to see who it was. He ran from machine fire and launched himself to the body as if he had also been killed. He had turned it over, only to realize, at the end of the day, that he had shot his own brother, although unknowingly.

Literary Device Analysis

In the tale “The Sniper” O'Flaherty provides deeper meaning and connection to the text using diverse literary devices. One example that furthered our understanding of the story and highlighted the theme is the situational irony in the story. From the last line of this story, “then the sniper turned over the dead boy and looked into his brother's face,” readers will recognize and conclude that the Republican sniper fatally shot his own brother. This is the main irony in the story since he inadvertently annihilates his brother. The short story also implements the usage of simile. The author describes the atmosphere in Dublin as, “Here and there through the city, machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms.” O’Flaherty is comparing the sounds of gunfire interrupting the silence to dogs barking on farms alone. As well, in this sentence, the author describes Dublin as a violent and unsafe place, full of relentless brutality, accompanied by firearms. Foreshadowing is also excellently used in the short story. After the Free State sniper is killed, the Sniper wonders, “He wondered did he know him. Perhaps he had been in his own company before the split in the army.“ This statement suggests that the Republican sniper might recognize the other sniper, which ends up being correct at the very end of the narrative when he discovers that the Free State sniper was his brother. The line also shows that the sniper clearly feels more guilty about killing this one individual than the others, which is due to the fact that, subconsciously, he may feel as though he is connected to him, which builds on the theme of the Tragedy of War. Another example of literary devices brought into play is personification. During the introduction of the story, the narrator states, “Around the beleaguered Four Courts the heavy guns roared.” The four courts are described as “stressed” or “tired” which is typically a trait to describe alive beings. As well, the guns are said to be “roaring” as if they could yell against the enemy. The statement also adds to the atmosphere of the story, with heavy guns joining the rifles and machine guns in the chorus of battle. The very last literary device chosen is a metaphor. When the armored car is heading toward the sniper, O’Flaherty writes, “His bullets would never pierce the steel that covered the gray monster.” In this metaphor, the car becomes a grey monster, which was used by O'Flaherty to highlight the monstrous aspect of battle and describe the powerful and intimidating presence of the car. These are just only several examples of the dramatic and developed literary devices used in the short story 'The Sniper'.

Theme Analysis:

Selected Theme: Tragedy Of War

The main theme of 'The Sniper' is the tragedy of warfare. First of all, the story depicts how soldiers can become accustomed to conflict, and how countries can embrace war as a sensible solution. Right after the Republican sniper defeated the Free State sniper, the author says “The sniper looked at his enemy falling and he shuddered. The lust of battle died in him. He became bitten by remorse.” It is the recognition that the sniper has been part of the war system that makes him feel regretful. He recognized that his only purpose in consciousness is that of ignorance, which fills him with guilt. The fact that he's destroyed another life has made him despise what he's done. The sniper takes too long to understand the nature of warfare as well as his part in any of it. For this reason, regret is felt. Moreover, when he had felt the intensity of this guilt, “His teeth chattered, he began to gibber to himself, cursing the war, cursing himself, cursing everybody.” The sniper begins to hate the war at this moment, realizing how futile it all is, cursing himself for becoming a cog in the machine and society for building that machine. The sniper's sole reaction towards this revelation was to curse himself and everyone else. Finally, at the end of this story, the sniper reached the Free State sniper's body, flipped him around, and 'looked at his brother's face.' Civil wars also have been portrayed as 'brother on brother.' This might mean that real brothers will serve on the opposite side of the fight, like how the two snipers were on opposite roofs, but could also mean that people of the same nation are symbolically siblings, meaning that any civil war is aggression with one's own kin, which is a tragedy by itself. Therefore, by examining and fully understanding select quotations from the text, the Tragedy of War is a theme that is obvious throughout the whole story.

Conflict Analysis:

Throughout the whole story, the sniper is at conflict with himself internally, feeling emotional or mental struggles after he kills the enemy sniper. At the beginning of the story the sniper has been successfully desensitized to the war, and in turn, seems to have no problems killing as he was described as “His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic.” But after the initial joy and lust of killing the enemy, he gets uncomfortable seeing the enemy sniper fall down and feels deep guilt and remorse, cursing the war and himself. External or person vs person conflict exists side by side with person vs self to create the depth of the story’s theme and plot. The sniper must survive the turbulent and harsh environment of war and battle, as well as the sniper sitting opposite the rooftop. The conflict these two characters encounter is the intent to annihilate each other as a result of the Civil War and their opposing sides. Another part of this conflict is the challenge that each soldier goes through and try to beat each other., with the Republican sniper getting shot and the Free State sniper getting killed in the end. It is because of this external conflict that the Sniper finally realizes all that he has done, and he has sensitized to the killing and war once again.