The Sniper Essay

Liam O’Flaherty
This Study Guide consists of approximately 27 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Sniper.

The Sniper Essay

Liam O’Flaherty
This Study Guide consists of approximately 27 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Sniper.
This section contains 1,888 words
(approx. 5 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The Sniper Study Guide

Korb has a master's degree in English literature and creative writing and has written for a wide variety of educational publishers. In this essay, Korb considers how "The Sniper" demonstrates the division the Irish civil war has inflicted on society.

In crafting his first published short story "The Sniper" O'Flaherty took as his setting and dramatic impetus an issue that he knew well: the Irish civil war of the early 1920s. In this story, two snipers on opposing sides of the conflict face off in a duel. The hero of the story prevails. He kills his enemy, thus assuring his survival, at least for the moment. Only after his enemy is dead, however, does the sniper make a startling revelation: the enemy sniper is his own brother.

The story does not address the problems of the civil war from any historical perspective; notably, O'Flaherty makes no mention...

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This section contains 1,888 words
(approx. 5 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The Sniper Study Guide
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The Sniper from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.