The Sniper

the-sniper

Questions

  1. Describe the setting of the short story ”The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty.
  2. How does the the sniper feel about the war at the beginning of the story?
  3. Why does the sniper kill the old woman? What happens after he fires his weapon?
  4. In Liam O’Flaherty’s ”The Sniper,” what does the woman symbolize?
  5. How does the street between the sniper and his target function as a symbol in the short story, ”The Sniper?”
  6. What causes the sniper to risk being shot by a machine gun near the end of ”The Sniper”?
  7. Who is the antagonist of ”The Sniper”?
  8. What is the tone of the story? What is it trying to say?

Post answers as a comment.

Part II

Read The Cranes. Write an essay where you compare the two short stories. Use the five paragraph essay outline. Read this page before you begin.

Part III

Example of comparing and contrasting 5 paragraph essay.

Comparison of the Crane and the Sniper

Connectors That Show Comparison (Similarities)

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Correspondingly

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Same as

Compared to

As well as
At the same time

On the other hand

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Connectors That Show Contrast (Differences)

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17 reaktioner till “The Sniper”

  1. Describe the setting of the short story ”The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty.

    We are set straight into a sniper mission. The sniper has been on a rooftop all day, it’s sunny and he’s just scouting.

    How does the the sniper feel about the war at the beginning of the story?

    He is a war veteran, a young student. His face is cold and he is used to death. He likes it, he smiles and takes a draught of some whisky. This implicates that he feels calm and used to the situation. He can be intoxicated and still carry out his mission.

    Why does the sniper kill the old woman? What happens after he fires his weapon?

    He kills the woman because she is an informer and she would have valuable intel as to his skill at shooting, his current position and if she is also good with weapons his weapon type and bullet used. Also The Snipers mission is supposed to be a stealth mission so any back-up would not help his cause.
    After he fires his weapon an enemy sniper, hidden on the rooftop just across the road fires towards his destination and pierces his forearm with a small bullet.

    In Liam O’Flaherty’s ”The Sniper,” what does the woman symbolize?

    I think the woman symbolizes the communicational part of the war. She is an informer. Without her all of the war, the fights and the thousands of deaths would be in cold blood. She, a woman being in the middle of the war gives of a feeling that the author may try to describe this as more of a political war than death-wish type war.

    How does the street between the sniper and his target function as a symbol in the short story, ”The Sniper?”

    It symbolizes the line between one side and the other, good and evil in a sense. For The Sniper it’s one of the reasons he is calm i believe. It symbolizes where he stands and they stand. His purpose is clear anyone on the other side of that road should be deemed armed and dangerous.

    What causes the sniper to risk being shot by a machine gun near the end of ”The Sniper”?

    He wants to see who this other skilled sniper was. He was thinking maybe it was someone famous.

    Who is the antagonist of ”The Sniper”?

    It was The Snipers own brother.

    What is the tone of the story? What is it trying to say?

    I think it gives us a perspective as to how war and enemies are actually just normal people that may live with us right now. You may never know what the future holds in store for us.

    Gilla

  2. The Sniper and The Crane – a comparison

    There are many similarities in the short stories the Cranes and the Sniper. Both take place in a country which is enveloped in civil war, which is in my opinion the only reason they are similar. I also think that the big message the authors are trying to give is that war is a horrible thing. It divides families and kin, it transforms small villages where everyone knows each other into a war-zone. More specific, a civil war, makes you fight your own friends and family.

    Likewise, a big similarity is that both protagonists are soldiers fighting for their side. They both are on a mission to do something, one who is supposed to escort a prisoner of war and one whom is a sniper guarding a road.

    The difference here is what divides the stories a lot. The protagonist in the Crane short story realizes who he are actually escorting, an old friend, whereas the sniper discovers this too late, alas it is not until he lies with the corpse of his dead brother that he discovers his true identity. I think this is because the novels want to send different messages.

    Something I think that especially the Sniper author wants to emphasize is that the sniper killed three humans. He was not disturbed at all until he saw the face of his own brother. What he wants to show is that even though you don’t have a emotional bond with a person doesn’t mean that they don’t have a family of their own. Every time he kills another man, he doesn’t just kill the body. He also destroys the bonds of that man. All his loved ones and his friends will mourn his loss. The sniper doesn’t understand this until he finds out that he has shot his own brother.

    Gilla

  3. 1. Describe the setting of the short story ”The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty.

    The story takes place during the Irish civil war. We follow a sniper on his mission in a city.The city is torn by war.

    2. How does the the sniper feel about the war at the beginning of the story?

    The sniper is very excited and wants to give it his all. The author describes his eyes as ”his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic”. It doesn’t specify if he is against the war or not, but it does say that he is very eager to show his worth.

    3. Why does the sniper kill the old woman? What happens after he fires his weapon?

    He shot her because first of all she was helping the other side. She could provide them with valuable information if she survived, such as his preferred positioning and use of weapons. Also I think it is a statement that you don’t go against ”the snipers faction”. Just after he fires his weapon he gets shot by the enemy sniper on the opposite rooftops.

    4. In Liam O’Flaherty’s ”The Sniper,” what does the woman symbolize?

    I think she symbolizes the people´s dedication to the war. She doesn’t have a gun or anything but to kill with, but her family and friends depends on her side of the war to win. So she does whats possible, even if it brings a lot of risks. She also symbolize the casualties of the civilians.

    5. How does the street between the sniper and his target function as a symbol in the short story, ”The Sniper?”

    I think it symbolizes the border between good and evil. Anyone on that side is evil and anyone on this is good. This puts him at ease since that means that he can kill the enemy with a clean consciousness

    6. What causes the sniper to risk being shot by a machine gun near the end of ”The Sniper”?

    He had listened to the surroundings and had heard a firefight going on in the distance although there was silence in the vicinity. He was also very curious as to discover the identity of the rival sniper. He thought he was pretty good and wondered if he had known him before the war started.

    7. Who is the antagonist of ”The Sniper”?

    The antagonist is the snipers own brother. He is the rival sniper who almost shot the protagonist. What I find very interesting is that if the sniper had simply bled out on the rooftops, his brother had not known it was his brother his shot. He would only later found out that his brother had died in the war. Vice versa for our ”good” sniper, if he had not checked the corpse of his brother, he had never found out that it was he who killed him.

    8. What is the tone of the story? What is it trying to say?

    I think it is trying to say that war is not only dangerous for the soldiers. Long ago, mostly the warriors fought. The victors took the defeated’s lands and ruled instead. They got the money and resources provided with the new land and that was it. Nowadays the war is fought in the lands they are trying to defend or capture. This leads to the unnecessary deaths of many civilians. They get caught in the crossfire and has nothing to do except to hide or join the war. This is what lead to the woman giving intel to the soldiers. If the sniper was killed, the soldiers of his ”faction” would lose intel about the surroundings which would lead to them maybe losing the territory. This would put the woman’s family and home out of danger.

    Gilla

  4. Sniper & The Crane

    Short stories comparison

    I have read two short stories that are both in a way dark and you always have to read between the lines to get the what the stories want to tell the audience. There are many similarities between those two stories but in a way they are also different.

    First, the biggest different between the stories were that there where short details about the enviourment, background story and characters details. In the sniper you never got his name or the name of the old woman or other characters, you only got the details in what a person were doing or working with. ex. the guy sitting in the turret machine and that’s it for the character details. The Crane told us about the characters name at least and a background text in the beginning so you could understand what it was all about.

    The similarities between those stories are probably that both were at war and were fighting their own brotherhood or their own people. In the sniper it was a little more dark than the crane because of the ending but it is still the similarity that you will notice if you read both. It were also a war that both part didn’t want because of who they were fighting, in the story you notice that war is cruel.

    The biggest difference aspect between the main characters are probably the ending were in the crane Songsam let his childhood friend Tokchae go so he could change and become a better person. In the sniper the ending isn’t so great when first the sniper battle with the other enemy at the roof and after he won that battle and walked to check the face of the defeated enemy he recognized his own brother.

    There are a lot of similarities and differences between the sniper and crane, like the topic being war. Both stories trying to tell different messages like in a way the crane story message is about friendship can overcome war. While the message that sniper are telling is that war dosen’t have a face. But one thing that both have a common message to give and that is that war is always cruel and harsh.

    Gilla

  5. ”The Sniper” By Liam O’Flaherty.

    1. Describe the setting of the story.
    The story is set in a war torn Dublin. We follow a republican sniper, who has been waiting on a rooftop since early morning, watching for enemies.

    2. How does the sniper feel about the war in the beginning of the story?
    He was fairly excited, and had been so since the morning. It was mentioned that he hadn’t eaten all day, since he had been too excited to eat.

    3. Why does the sniper kill the old woman? What happens after he fires his weapon?
    He kills the woman because she compromised his location, and posed as a security risk, she provided the enemy with information, and would probably continue to do so if left alive. So he decided to shoot her.
    After he fires his weapon he immediately gets spotted by the enemy sniper, who returned fire and succeeded in injuring him. Resulting in him no longer being able to use his rifle.

    4. What does the woman symbolize?
    I think she symbolizes how civilians are dragged into wars, be they friend or foe. Civilians often get stuck in the crossfire when two opposing factions go at it in a city. And use unorthodox methods in order to survive. However, this woman was seemingly willing to help out by providing information to the side she supported. But it might have been a case of survival. She may have been forced to help provide them with information, perhaps they hold her family members hostage. We don’t know.

    5. How does the street between the sniper and his target function as a symbol in the story?
    I think it functions as a symbol that suggests how divided it is. The country has essentially been split into two different factions, and the other side of the street is the enemy faction. That kind of mindset might function as a way for him to ease himself and not break down. The other side is the enemy, the enemy is trying to kill you, so you kill the enemy before it kills you.

    6. What causes the sniper to risk being shot by a machine-gun near the end of the story?
    He had become curious of the identity of the enemy sniper who he had been exchanging gun shots with. He thought his opponent skilled, and wondered if it was somebody he knew before the war broke out.

    7. Who is the antagonist of the story?
    I personally think that there is no real protagonist or antagonist in the story. It’s essentially two sides of a coin, both factions are fighting for their own beliefs, and both sides think that they are in the right. They think the enemy is in the wrong, and therefore fights them.
    However, we do follow a single person, so that makes him our protagonist. And that would make his opponent, the enemy sniper, the antagonist. And as it turns out, the enemy sniper was his own brother.

    8. What is the tone of the story? What is it trying to say?
    The tone of the story is fairly dark and gloomy.
    I feel like it’s trying to say that wars tear people apart. Literally and figuratively. And civil wars tear a country apart from the inside. All of a sudden, the person you called your best friend may turn into an enemy who is after your life. And people you may have thought close, sell you out to the enemy in order to ensure their own survival. All of these are possibilities when it comes to war. People have different beliefs, and are therefore always divided to a certain point.

    Comparison of ”The Sniper” and ”Cranes”.

    ”The Korean war, like all civil wars, sometimes pitted relative against relative, neighbor against neighbor, and friend against friend.”

    ”The Sniper” and ”Cranes”, are very similar stories. Both are about a civil war, and how it divides people, friends and families. And in both stories are our protagonists faced with decisions regarding killing, and the consequences brought on by such.

    In ”The Sniper” our protagonist took the life of 3 different people. Only after all his enemies were dealt with, did he take the time to reflect on what he had done, and it almost made him break down. He got back to his senses, and started to evacuate his position. Only to find out that one of the people he had killed were his own brother, and that’s where the story ends.

    In ”Cranes” the protagonists aren’t in the middle of a battlefield like in ”The Sniper”, but they were definitely not new to the horrors of war. The man we’re following, Song-sam, is tasked with escorting, and presumably shoot, a prisoner which turns out to be his childhood playmate, Tok-chae. They are on opposing sides of the civil war, and are therefore enemies. However Song-sam later in the story, after reminiscing about the past, decides not to shoot his childhood friend and instead lets him go.

    Comparing the two stories have given sight to two overarching themes of the stories. They are both about the horrors of civil wars. And they are both about friends and family pitted against each other as consequence to said civil wars.
    In ”The Sniper” he only found out that it was his brother that he had killed, after it was already too late.
    While in ”Cranes” Song-sam made the choice to spare Tok-chae’s life.

    Gilla

  6. The Sniper and Cranes – a comparison

    Recently I read two short stories that made quite an impression on me. They are the Sniper and Cranes. Both are war stories. Both are a reminder of the importance of family and friendship, and the horrors of war. There are many interesting similarities but also important differences between the stories.

    The circumstance to the stories are about war. The both main characters similarly are men. They are in war and having an encounter with a familiar individuals. Like for instance ”The sniper” had a brother the ”Crane” had friendship.
    The story relate to the main characters having known each other since they were child.

    Aside from the similarities, there are also various difference between these two stories.

    To begin with are the period that the characters live in. In the story ”The sniper” in a more modern area than the ”Crane”.
    The stories ends in a different way too. In the ”Crane”, it ends with friendship winning against war compared to in ”The Sniper”, which ends in the opposite. The main character kills his brother and it ended like that.
    In addition the stories is trying tell us something in different way too, like for instance ”The sniper” is telling us that war is bad compared to ”The Crane” which is telling us that friendship is important and can win against war.

    To sum up I have talked about the circumstances, the similarities and the difference to the stories. The circumstances to the stories are about war. The similarities are the both main characters are men and having an encounter with a familiar individuals. And the difference are the period the characters live in and the stories ends in a different way too.
    Thank you for listening!

    Gilla

  7. The Sniper and Crane a comparison

    “A small but noteworthy note. I’ve seen so many young men over the years who think they’re running at other young men. They are not. They are running at me.” — Markus Zusak author of The Book Theif. Death is the quote teller.

    In the two novels The Sniper and Crane, similarities but also differences are many and those differences separates the novels from one another. The differences and similarities are many but I cannot bring them all up to the table, so I will mention a few similarities but also some differences from the two novels.

    The ending in the both stories are the big differences, in the Sniper he kills his own brother to save himself from getting killed. But in Cranes the protagonist lets his old best friend free when they are on two different sides of the war. The sniper is under fire from another sniper, but the protagonist successfully creates his own advantage and ends the enemy snipers life. When he went to retrieve and confirm his kill he saw that it was his own brother he had killed. In Cranes the protagonist is a soldier who are supposed to execute a prisoner of war, but its his childhood best friend and lets him go.

    I think the both stories have different environments described, in The Sniper the environment was poorly described, they tell us it was dark outside and that the sniper was laying on a roof looking down on a small street. A car comes down from a road on the left and a person opens a door on the right. Then another sniper is firing from a house from the other side of the street. I could picture it but because it was described dark i couldn´t see any details. Its different from Crane where it was during bright day light and the protagonist were chilling on a bench, rose up and found a prisoner on a staircase up to some kind of building. They started walking and talking on their journey on the execution spot. The reader gets a lot of descriptions of his flashbacks to when they were younger and played together. I could imagen when they released the crane and when they were hiding from the elders, when he let his friend free and told him to go.

    They both were very good stories and they really brings up a message that war have both horrible and beautiful stories to tell, war is never good but the people fighting them are human beings and they feel the same way we do during peace.

    Gilla

  8. The sniper and the Crane – a comparison

    I have read two short stories called the sniper and the Crane. Both of them are similar to each other in some whey but there are also some differences between the stories. The stories are very similar too each other because they are both about civil war, how the war divides people and so on. But there are some differences also.

    The biggest different I notice were how the stories were described, in the Crane you get a lot of background information so you know what is all about and there is a lot more details about the environment too. In the sniper you just gets thrown into the story without knowing any background information. And the descriptions on characters in the sniper are very short.

    Another difference is the endings of the stories. In the sniper the main character finds a way to kill the enemy gun-man on the other side of the road and it’s not until he plans his escapes rout he get curious who the gun-man was. Who knows it could be some “famous” killer from the enemy he thought. Either way he decides to go and check on the dead guy and it turns out to be his own blood brother. That’s were the story ends.

    In the crane the main character Song-sam has a mission to escort and kill a guy. But the guy is no random dude it’s Tok-chae, Song-sams childhood friend. He leads Tok-chae out in the jungle and they stumble on to a field that they used to chase cranes on. Both of them gets flashbacks to the pass and Song-sam says something like “what about on last crane hunt if you go that way and lure them out I’ll be here waiting”. In other words that mean he let Tok-chae go instead of killing him.

    To sum thing up we can start with that there was some differences in the way the stories were told and how the environment were described.
    Both stories were about civil war and how friends and family can be pitted against each other and choose to kill or forgive. You most take this decision before you the killing shot even if you know who you are aiming at or not.

    Gilla

  9. The Sniper and Cranes. – a comparison

    ”Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.” That is what Herbert Hoover, the 31h President of the United states once said, and this captures the essence of war and of these two similar stories ”The Sniper” and ”Cranes. These short stories deal with the topic of civil war, there are interesting similarities and differences about these stories that gives a great picture of how devastating war can be.

    First, the stories start of very similarly as they describe the place and the time, what is happening and why. They are both war stories, pitting family and friends against one another. Fighting for a cause that was forced upon them. It happened in both the stories, in ”the sniper” it just went a lot further and the main character killed his brother on accident. It must be absolutely devastating to be forced to fight your friends and maybe even shoot your own brother. In both the stories they are fighting for an unknown higher person, and I think this symbolizes that these people are drafted into a civil war that they actually have nothing to do with.

    Both the stories are about young men who would much rather be somewhere else trying to build a career or take care of their family instead of fighting in this was against brothers. They both seem clever as in ”the sniper” the main character comes up with a clever way to kill the enemy by tricking him that he died. In ”cranes” he let his friend go when I remembered the cranes allowing him to keep on living. You notice in the stories that the characters feel the same, they DONT want to fight this war anymore because of what they had to do, the sniper regrets him shooting his own brother and in the ”cranes” no one died.

    Some things about the stories are different though, one very obvious thing is the endings, one is where the sniper shoots and kills his own brother and in the other they try to reenact their childhood and become friends again despite fighting for different sides, one is almost a beautiful lie and the other is a harsh truth. They also have different but similar missions, one is escorting and the other is like a bit of recon or assassination quite interesting.

    To summarize they are beautiful but also painful stories, thinking of being in their situations splits my heart and shatters it. Many things are so wrong with fighting brothers to the death.
    They are both about friendship in wartimes but one has a harsher outcome and ending than the other.

    Gilla

  10. These types of personal, dark stories does generally have a few similarities but it still exist a small amount of differences that make nearly every story personal.

    Both of these stories settings are based upon war which is the main topic. War is the thing that all humans despise and never want it to come, but war is inevitable. The Sniper and Cranes both depicts the people who have the greatest consequences of war, the soldiers. These soldiers job is to kill and when you don’t know who you kill it doesn’t matter. That’s what these stories are similar. The main theme isn’t about people who kill strangers but it depicts people who have to kill people whom they know and feel for.

    If we put the similarities aside there are quite a few differences. The main character and the protagonist is the Sniper, or the narrator. The narrator laid on a roof in Dublin to try to find a enemy when a shot sizzles through the air and he lives through in a first person view. When the story reaches the climax the protagonist gets faced with a big conflict when the other sniper is killed and the narrotor somehow recognises his target. The end is total climax where he sees he has killed his brother.

    In Cranes there are two main characters Songsam and Tokchae, which used to be childhood playmates. This story was set in the korean war. Songsam was inevitably going to shoot Tokchae but he then remembered when they were children and they let a crane go. Songsams mentality and loyalty to kill when this situation occurred.

    Both of these have many similarities and differences which are set in wars, and these things occur just because of war. People are taught to kill people without hesitation but they even everyday folks can change wars when they think that all people they kill have a family which they love and that they are loved.

    Gilla

  11. the sniper and the crane has some similarities and interesting things that makes the story interesting.

    there is a great war between their countries that makes them go against each other under different circumstances in their stories, they fight or meet someone they care about in a bad way.
    the sniper has a sad/bad ending when the crane also has a bad one but it becomes happier like a memory.
    in the crane they see each other while in the sniper they don’t know who the other person is and thinks that he must be an enemy

    in the both stories the guys are in a war. in the war they met someone important to them in bad circumstances. in the crane song-sam meet his childhood friend after all these year tok-chae, who have killed many people, while in the sniper the main character meets an sniper that’s in his way but it is his own brother.

    there is a difference between the crane and the sniper in their endings. In the crane song-sam free his friend tok-chae like they both freed the crane when they were younger. it was only possible thanks to their friendship when they were younger and that song-sam remembered the old days. In the sniper the main character kills the sniper he fought and risk getting shot att just to see his face. when he sees the snipers face its his own brother he has killed.

    conclusion: in war families, friends och loved ones may be separated and fight each other under different circumstances or depending which side they took, but are their feelings irrelevant just because they are on different sides, is there nothing they can do and there will only be regret when you know what you have done.
    War, war never changes.

    Gilla

  12. The Sniper and Crane – a comparison
    ”And the battle’s just begun
    There’s many lost, but tell me who has won
    The trench is dug within our hearts
    And mothers, children, brothers, sisters
    Torn apart”
    Sunday Bloody Sunday, U2 (1983)

    There are many similarities between ”The Sniper” and ”Crane”. Still you can find some interesting differences from the texts.

    I the both novells the country has divided half and they are in war against eachother. Main characters in both stories have to fight against people they know. In ”The Sniper” the main character have to fight against his own brother. In ”Crane” the main character Song-sam is suppose to kill his childhood friend Tok-chae.

    Even tough, you can find some differences between the stories. The biggest difference is in the end of stories. In ”The Sniper” fights agains enemy sniper. In the end when he has shot the enemy he goes to look who he was, thinking maybe he could know him. When he gets to the body he sees that it is his own brother. In ”Crane” Song-sam fights agains his childhood friend Tok-chae. Song-sam captures Tok-chae and he is suppose to get him somewhere to be executed. On the way he remembers when he and Tok-chae caught a crane. After a while they had to let the bird go because some people came there to catch cranes as speciments. After remembering what he and Tok-chae had donet o the bird and what kind of other fun things they did as they were kids, he decides to let Tok-chae go.

    There is similarities in the stories like the fact that there is war in both countries but what is more important is the differences. In ”Crane” Song-sam didn’t have to kill his friend because he saw who he was fighting agains. Maybe in ”The Sniper” he woudn’t have shot his brother if he would have known it was his own brother.

    Gilla

  13. Civil wars and comparisons

    Can you compare two different stories about two different countries and make out similarities between two different Civil wars? Well that is what I am going to make an attempt at. My name is Mahdi Wandi and I am here today to compare two simple yet intriguing short stories about what could happen during a Civil war. I will state my reason for doing this comparison. Explain and argue for what I think these two stories have in common, also explain where they vary. Lastly I’ll sum it all up and give you an insight as to what kind of feelings the stories gave me.

    Regarding the reasons for this comparison it is simple. This topic is something that should be regarded as common knowledge. The ability to compare two stories regarding the same topic, and that topic being Civil wars gives enough reasons for this to be written. Civil wars is no small matter and they happen more often than not in almost every country’s history. So knowing about how it could turn out if it ever was to break out is valuable knowledge in my eyes.

    Indeed, being able to compare is an important skill to have. So here we go. There are many similarities between the stories “the Sniper” and “Cranes”. They both provide a short action-packed story of a protagonist working for the government in a Civil War. One protagonist is a sniper on a rooftop in Ireland; the other one is transporting a prisoner in Korea. Both stories teach us an important lesson about the difference between war and Civil war. Normally, war consist of soldiers, your comrades fighting together towards a common enemy consisting of strangers. However as these stories teach us that line between stranger and comrade gets blurred out during a Civil war. You no longer know if whom you are shooting against is your worst enemy or in some cases a close friend. This can be seen in both stories. Firstly “the Sniper” has the protagonist kill his own brother, whilst not knowing it was him. Secondly in “Cranes” the prisoner is the main character’s childhood friend, which he releases. Both of these story-ending scenarios change the protagonists, which is another thing both stories have in common.

    Aside from the similarities, the stories are different in many ways. The most obvious being the setting in which they take place. “the Sniper” is set during a moonlit evening in Ireland, with a sniper scouting from a rooftop towards the streets beneath him. Unlike “Cranes” which is set in Korea on a sunny day. Also the way the story is written is fairly different. “the Sniper” resembles a movie like story, with a build up then a big highlight. Where as “Cranes” is written in a philosophical way, we get many flashback and different themes. With “Cranes” written this way it further sets the stories apart, because “the Sniper” has one main setting where as “Cranes” don’t, it varies. Another reason why one gives of a movie like feeling and the other one don’t is the fact that “the Sniper” consists of gunshots, killings and rivalry. As for most action movies those three categories are commonly seen. “Cranes” has no killing in it and in the end the enemy, is set free. This is not a common thing to see in action movies, because they are supposed to be exciting and not too philosophical.

    To sum up, both stories have many similarities but equally as many differences. For the similarities I’ve written about how both of the stories revolve around the government. Both are in a state of Civil war and the protagonists are fighting against someone close to them. I’ve also told you about how they differentiate from each other. “the Sniper” written in a more movie like manner, with a lot of action. And “Cranes” written in a more poetic, story like manner. Both of them are all in all good stories, which gives us, the readers a perspective into what Civil wars have to offer.

    Gilla

  14. The Sniper and The Crane – a comparison
    After reading through The Sniper and The Crane, both of these short stories showed a vast amount of similarities that proved that these stories are the same but at the same time not. Both of these stories consist of war, fighting, backstory of the characters, choices, friendship and moreover families.

    First up, both the stories are about close friends or family. In the story “The Sniper” the main character is in a “skirmish” of some sort with soldiers from the opposing army. The main character is the sniper and his objective is to dispatch of an important woman that has a huge influence in the war, he succeeds but meets up with another sniper a few buildings away that shoots his arm, wounding him severely. He had no choice but to dispatch of him too but what he didn’t know was that the other sniper was actually his brother.
    And this relates to the other story as well, almost having the same concept the story “The Crane” is about young childhood friends, who are in war now both fighting in the opposite sides. They both were unwilling to kill people but were forced to, for their country they had to do it. One of the childhood friend got caught and got cuffed, once the other friend got his eyes on him he lead him to an old place where they used to be. It was a difficult choice to kill him or to release him despite him being a friend. He made up his mind and got the cuffs off from him.

    Speaking about choices and making up your mind both the stories involve difficult dilemmas that the characters must choose from. And that happens in war too, which is the main topic of these two stories, to fight or to flee? Live or protect? And in many war movies as we’ve seen in these days the main character always fights and protects, risking their lives for others however those movies don’t have these difficult choices to make from as in “The Crane” where the character leaves his friend to make him a better man in the future. In “The Sniper” the character also has to make a choice, to leave the corpse of the man he just killed or to check whom it is and live with the consequences it leads to.

    Aside from the similarities these both stories ends with quite different kind of mood. In the story about the sniper the main character finds out that the man he killed was his own brother hence leading to a depressing mood of the story and it ends with that. On the other hand “The Crane” ends with a much happier mood both the characters living and having a future, the story can have a continuation with much greater concept whereas “The Sniper” can only continue in a negative mood.

    To summarize, both these stories are really deep the more you put your mind into it but it has a painful side to it too not only to “The Sniper” but also to “The Crane” both of them had done something they would regret. Being in war with each other fighting considering that the enemies might always be your brother or best friend. It breaks the will of the people and their hearts and every people you kill or hurt might be someone you care about.

    Gilla

  15. The Sniper and The Cranes – a comparison

    The stories “The Sniper” and “The Cranes” share a number of similarities. They do however have their own quirks to make them unique. The two short stories are set in wartime but are carrying their own ideas that they are trying to convey. Two subjects in the same theme and yet they are different.

    First of all, the similarities between the two stories. They are both set in countries that are in the middle of ongoing war, civil war to be exact. And both “The Sniper” and “The Cranes” follow a protagonist that is sided with one of the parts in the war. Additionally, there is an overall message these stories get across. That war is a terrible thing, and that war turn strangers into foes and more specifically, in civil war, those foes could very well be your own kinsmen. Unbeknownst to them, they might end up killing the people they care about the most. Both protagonists in both stories are pitted against someone they care about.

    Second of all, the differences between the two stories. The biggest difference of them all is that even though they share the same theme, they convey two different things of which are shown in the endings. “The Sniper” follows the main character, the sniper, as he engages in a long distance battle, first with a convoy and then with an enemy sniper. At the end when he comes out on top in his battle with the enemy sniper, it is revealed that his enemy is actually his brother. There, the moral of the story is that in war you can engage in battle with your kin and you would have no idea. “The Cranes” follows Song-Sam, who is put in charge of escorting and disposing another man by the name Tok-Chae. Who he recognizes as the best friend he had during his childhood. Although his mission is to kill Tok-Chae, he makes the choice of sparing him as he thinks of their childhood days. Differing to “The Sniper”, “The Cranes” has more of a perspective on sparing someone.

    To sum up, the two stories are similar overall, but have important differences and ideas that get conveyed.

    Gilla

  16. The Sniper

    The sniper feels like excited in the beginning of the story

    The sniper killed the old woman because she was informer, she would be dangerous if she escaped from the site because she would have given away the snipers location and killed her so he would not be in a situation that maybe could kill him. After he kills the old woman the sniper got shot by someone from the other roof and he injured his forearm.

    How the street between the sniper and his target function as a symbol is because the street symbols that anyone in the street and the opposite is the enemy, so the sniper and everthing behind him is an ally but the other side is an enemy.

    The risk that made almost the sniper got shot is because he wanted to know the identity of opposing sniper because he was really good sniper.

    The antagonist of ”The sniper” is the snipers own brother

    The storys meaning is during a war or a civil war the foe you can go against can be someone you dont know or a friend, cousin, brother or even your mother and father so the meaing is during a civil war your state can put you against your own family and you dont even know that

    Gilla

  17. The Sniper and The Cranes

    Two great war stories are found in Cranes by Hwang Sun-won and The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty. In them we get an interesting perspective on war and its consequence. Cranes is about Song-sam who was in a war against an old friend and he had to kill him, but when he remembered the good times they had when they were children he let his friend Tok-chae go. The Sniper is about a Republican sniper who was in a death battle against someone who was in the opposite side of the street and after he killed the other person in the opposite side of the street, the sniper went there and wanted to see who the other person was and he found out that the other person was his own brother.

    The Sniper and The Cranes have some interesting similarities. They also have dissimilarities that make the stories their own. The Sniper and Cranes similarities are that the both of them had to go against someone close to them, The Sniper went against his own brother and in The Cranes was Song-sam forced to kill his old friend. So both of them had to go against someone close to them.

    The difference between The Sniper and Cranes is that The Sniper he didn’t know whom his target was and in Cranes the protagonist he knew whom the “antagonist” is. The sniper he didn’t had any choice he had to kill the other sniper or he would be killed instead so it was “to kill or to be killed” but Sog-sam he had at least a choice he could let his friend go or kill him, I think that the story would have changed in the sniper if he had another choice instead of killing him.

    Song-sam and The Sniper had to go against someone close to them but they made different choices, The Sniper killed his own brother but he didn’t know that he killed his own brother until after he saw his dead body. Song-sam, on the other hand, instead of killing his old friend Tok-chae let him go because they were good friends before the war and it didn’t matter they weren’t on the same side. Song-sam let him go because friendship is more important than a war.

    In conclusion these two stories paint a humane picture of war. We get the human dimension: friendship and family. How regular people can be affected by the horrors of war.

    Gilla

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