Sniper Summary

 Summary
   Sounds of machine guns and rifles thundered in the darkness of the night around the Four Courts in Dublin.  An outbreak  of a civil war had started between Republicans and Free Staters. Near O’Connell Bridge, a Republican sniper that had a face of a student, but eyes cold gleam lay on the rooftop while eating his sandwich and drinking whiskey. Suddenly he spots an armored car of his enemy but doesn’t shoot as he knows his bullet wouldn’t pass through the steel. An old women walked towards that car and started talking to the man inside it while pointing a finger to the sniper. The sniper knew he had been spotted and without any hesitation he pulled the trigger and killed both the old women and the man in the car. Right after that a bullet from the opposite roof struck him right in his right forearm. He dropped his rifle and lay on the ground moaning in pain, but he knew he had to kill his enemy. He nursed his wound and set the rifle back up. Still crying in pain he targeted towards the opposite building and eagerly pulled the trigger. He heard the cry of the enemy being hit, he knew he had done his job. The sniper curiously went to the enemy wondering who it was and “turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face.” (The Sniper, 89)

Message from the Author

       I think the message the author is trying to convey is that in many countries where civil war or wars are going on, there are many kids that are affected by it. As the kids are still young and not mature they are easily manipulated to kill the enemy they are told to for food or other reasons and sometimes without even knowing they kill their own.  Similarly in this story the Republican sniper described as a youth as “his face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic”(The Sniper, 86) This explains how the sniper was a kid and was in fact scared. Moreover, kids are supposed to be guided by their teachers and parents to the right path as they are still new to the world, but in countries where war takes place some kids don’t get that guidance, instead are told to do illegal things for food, and this could be related to the young sniper. “He was eating his sandwich hungrily” and, ‘‘ He finished the sandwich and taking a flask of whiskey from his pocket, he took a short draught.”( The Sniper 86) This further gives an example of what I was saying before as here the text states the young sniper was eating like he hasn’t for days and  that he was drinking whiskey, meaning the young sniper has a food shortage and that he is being given wrong guidance as he is drinking whiskey, youths are supposed to drink milk instead of whiskey.  Also in the end the text states “ Then the sniper turned over the dead boy and looked into his brother’s face.”( The Sniper, 89) This shows how the kids don’t have any idea of what they are doing and who they are doing it to as  in this story  the sniper found out that the enemy he had killed was his brother. Basically in the countries where there are wars going on the kids there are growing very quickly and are killing instead of going to schools.