by Taryn Coetzee

Created on: April 24, 2009   Last Updated: April 28, 2009

The Sniper' is a short story written by Liam O'Flaherty. The story is about a civil war taking place in Dublin. The Sniper' is the main character, and is hiding on the rooftop of a building near to O'Connel Bridge. The war is between the Free states and the Republicans. The sniper is on the side of the Republicans. I intend to discuss how tension and a sense of horror is created by O'Flaherty. Furthermore, I will also discuss how effectively he reveals the main character in the story.

O'Flaherty uses several ways to reveal the character of the sniper. For example, the author's word choice is very effective: "a man who is used to looking at death." This phrase is effective because it instantly gives the idea that he may have very cold' looking eyes. By using the word looking' it draws the reader's attention to the eyes of the sniper. Although this suggests that the sniper did not have a problem with killing people, the further on in the story you read, the more this proves to be untrue. For example, "The sniper looked at his enemy falling and he shuddered." This shows that he could kill, although he did not enjoy doing it. The word choice on this occasion is very effective as it makes it easy for the reader to imagine how the sniper feels. The word shuddered' is a very good word choice, as the reader can interpret it in several ways. The most obvious way that the reader may interpret this is that the sniper got a chill down his back as he watched the body fall to the ground. This phrase reveals more about the character. Furthermore, the phrase, "He began to gibber to himself, cursing himself, cursing everybody," proves that the character does not like killing people and even feels guilty after doing it. By saying that he was cursing everybody,' it suggests that he may have been forced to do this and therefore has a lot of anger towards others, again revealing his character even more.

Although the quotations which I have introduced above prove that the sniper does not like killing people, another quotation from the passage contradicts this: "He had been too excited to eat." The word excited' suggests that he enjoys having the chance to fight; however, you could argue that he was scared, nervous and even unhappy about the situation, but could be showing these feelings in a way which suggests that he is excited. The fact that he had been so excited that he was unable to eat, emphasises just how strong his feelings were.

The writer is successful in building a sense

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