"The Sniper" By Liam O'Flaherty

Summary

The short story "The Sniper" by Liam O'Flaherty starts off by one of the snipers on a rooftop and the other sniper on the other rooftop. The two sides here are the Republicans and the Free Staters. The Republican sniper is spotted by the "enemy" when he lights up a cigarette. The two snipers try to get each other but are not successful.When the Republican sniper sees the enemy's tank he raises his rifle and shoot, but ends up shooting an old lady. The enemies side fires at the sniper and that results in the sniper getting shot in his arm. After wrapping his arm up he comes up with an idea to fool the enemy. When his plans goes the way he wants he finally hits the enemy. Then he turns the enemy's body over to see who he shot, its turns the life the Republican sniper took was his very own brothers.       

Main Idea

I think the authors message was there are no winners in war. This is shown throughout the text because the two snipers are trying to get each other and when one finally shoots the other its turns out to be his brother. That shows that there are no winners to war because even when the sniper shot his enemy he lost his brother.