“The Sniper”By Liam O’Flaherty

PRE-READING NOTESThe Writer and his Historical Connection

Meet the Writer• Liam O’Flaherty (1896-

1984)• Born to a large, poor family

on Inishmore, one of Ireland’s rocky Aran Islands.

• He took inspiration from the peasant life of the Aran Islands in his writing.

Background• This story is set in Dublin,

Ireland, in the 1920s, during a time of civil war.• Republicans: desired all of

Ireland to be totally free from British rule.

• Free Staters: desired compromise with Britain.

• The Irish Civil war tore families apart: child against parent, sister against sister, and brother against brother.

POST-READING NOTESLiterary Elements

Conflict and Point of View

• Conflict:• Man vs. Man: the struggle exists between the

Republican sniper and the Free Stater sniper.

• Point of View:• Third person limited: restricted to one character

(the Republican sniper) and observes only what he sees, hears, feels, or does.

Similes and Metaphors• Similes:• “Machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night,

spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms.”

• Metaphors:• “Around the beleaguered Four Courts the heavy guns

roared.”• “The sniper could hear the dull panting of the motor .

. . His bullets would never pierce the steel that covered the gray monster.”

• Personification: attributing human characteristics to something nonhuman.

Mood• The mood of “The Sniper” is nervous and

suspenseful. • O’Flaherty keeps you reading to find out what

comes next. • The reader feels the suspense and becomes

nervous when the Republican sniper is shot and he has to make a plan so that he can both live and kill the Free Stater sniper on the opposite rooftop.

Irony• The irony of “The Sniper” is situational.• Situational irony: an event occurs that contradicts

the expectations of the reader.

• Neither the reader nor the Republican sniper expects the two snipers to be brothers fighting against each other.

Theme

• One of the possible themes of “The Sniper” is that war has no boundaries.