In Liam O'Flaherty's brilliant anti-war short story "The Sniper" I do not believe the reader can tell whether the Republican sniper has an internal conflict. The story is told from a detached, almost totally objective perspective. We get very few hints into the psychology of the sniper other than the fact that he is a "fanatic" and gives a "cry of joy" after shooting the opposition sniper.
The only discernible conflict in the story is man vs. man. Two snipers are at war on the rooftops of Dublin and, while we view the action from the Republican snipers vantage point, we know almost nothing about his feelings toward his duty other than he is totally committed to his task and goes about it with cold calculation in killing a woman, a tank commander and the opposing sniper.
Even at the end of the story when the sniper discovers that the sniper he killed was his own brother the writer reveals no emotion. The story simply ends. If there is an internal conflict within the sniper about fighting on the opposite side from a member of his family O'Flaherty is totally mute on the issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment