Liam O Flaherty's The Sniper

There has been over 2000 deaths in Ireland from the Irish Civil War. Wars are created as a result of religious and political disagreements or from the rage of people. War will turn anyone, even innocent people, into targets to be shot at in order to prove a point. In war, young men will be forced to kill the people they do not even know of. In Liam O’Flaherty’s story, The Sniper, the Republican sniper is forced to kill those who appear to be his enemies or allies with the enemy, thinking that the deaths of those people will change the flow of the war towards the Republican army. Shockingly, wars may take away lives of individuals from your own flesh and blood and unfortunately in the book, the sniper finds out that one of the victims he has
“Then around the corner of a side street came an old woman, her head covered by a tatter shawl. She began to talk to them man in the turret of the car. She was pointing to the roof where the sniper lay. An informer.” (Page 213). From this quote, we can infer that the woman is probably just an innocent person from the neighborhood who is attempting to move safely through the streets but is concerned about her safety. Therefore, she informs the soldier and shows where the republican sniper was hiding. As a result, the sniper takes out the driver of the tank along with the old woman. “The turret opened. A man’s head and shoulders appeared, looking towards the sniper. The sniper raised his rifle and fired. The head fell heavily on the turret wall. The woman darted toward the side street. The sniper fired again. The woman whirled round and fell with a shriek into the gutter.” (Page 213). Not only are there no winners in war, but in all civil wars, inhumane actions lead to terrible consequences of innocent individuals, children, and elderly being killed. As demonstrated, the woman was carrying out a blameless act of simply worrying about her safety, but in the sniper’s perspective he sees her as a target to be shot at. War has caused the
The effects of war and the amount of damage it does to society is established when the republican sniper turns over the dead man he has murdered, “…he felt a sudden curiosity as to the identity of the enemy sniper whom he had killed. He decided that he was a good shot whoever he was. He wondered if he knew him. Perhaps he had been in his own company before the split in the army… Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother's face.”(Page 215). The sniper has definitely not expected the victim to be his brother but probably someone he knows or just a total stranger. After the sniper discovers he has killed his own brother, the story ends and the author leaves us to imagine what the reaction of the sniper would be by using inferences made throughout the