The Sniper is a short story by Liam O'Floherty which describes the experiences of a Republican sniper during a civil war in Dublin, Ireland . The sniper is camping on roof near O'Connell Bridge with his rifle beside him, with minimal lighting from the moon he hungrily ate food after many hours of starvation. After his meal he decided to take the risk of lighting a cigarette even though the enemy would be able to see him due to the light produced . As soon as he lit the cigarette with a match a bullet whizzed past him, cursing he put out the light and rolled to the side grabbing his rifle and looking for the enemy sniper. Unfortunately the Enemy was undercover, a little while later an armoured enemy vehicle pulls up near the parapet where the Republican Sniper was hiding. A Woman approaches the vehicle, the sniper concludes that the woman is an enemy informer and takes out the woman and the enemy in the truck. However after he takes these shots the Enemy sniper shoots his shoulder but the sniper shows no pain even though the bullet is lodged in his bone instead he rips off a piece of his shirt using a knife and tends to his wounds by pouring liquid Iodine onto it. Since he is currently unable to operate a rifle he makes a plan to trick the Enemy sniper in order for the Republican Sniper to kill him. He puts his con the tip of the rifle and lifts his rifle making it seem like his head is exposed, the Enemy bites the bait and shoots the cap. Following that, the Republican Sniper drops his gun and cap over the ledge and onto the street to make it look as if the enemy killed him. Triumphant the enemy stands up proud of his kill. but his victory doesn't last long because the republican Sniper now has a clear shot and using his hand held revolver he shoots the enemy even though he's about 40 meters away. Then the Republican sniper leaves the roof and decides to go to his commanding officer to report. But before he leaves the sniper decides to look at the Enemy sniper who fell off the roof ,because he was a very good sniper. when he got closer to the body he turned it over and looked in to his brothers face.
Author's View on War
The Author has a negative view on war which can be seen in his short story, he describes the hardships snipers and soldiers go through. They have to overcome every emotion including pain to be the best soldier without any remorse for who they kill. Soldiers have to follow orders no matter what they are, even though the soldiers don't hate the enemy soldiers they just follow orders which can be ironically seen in the story, the Republican Sniper shoots his brother who was transferred to the enemy army when the army split in half. War hurts our loved ones and somebody else loved ones, there are no winners
in war.
Noice
ReplyDelete