The Battle of Conscience
"never do anything to against the conscience, even if the state demands it." This quote is from Albert Einstein. In this quote, Albert Einstein tells us what a normal person should do when faced with a moral dilemma. What people do is often the opposite of what their conscience tells them to do. " The Sniper" by O' Flaherty and "War" by Timothy Findley are both good examples of this. The two stories both show that war brings people pain because it forces them to contradict their consciences and feelings. "The Sniper" and "War" both show people will go against their conscience during war because they are force to hurt women & children. In the story " War", Neil not only throws stones at his dad, but also throws stones at his mother. In the story, Neil said " I certainly didn't what to hit my mother." (P80) At the climax of the story, Neil starts to hit his mother. Originally, it was believed in many countries that women should not be harmed during war. But these days when a war starts, the soldiers start to contradict themselves and hurt innocent women just as Neil did. In the " War" , Neil's mother is not the only women who got hurt, Neil, a ten year old boy, is also a victim of war in the story. During the stone war, Neil fell down because of the stones and "I got something in my throat and nearly chocked to death." (82)The pain that Neil bear is more than the physical feeling but a mix of both physical and psychological injuries. It is a heavy blow for children to fight with their closet people, and that feeling is as same as death. "Then My mother just sat with me, and I guess I cried for a long time."(82) After the stone war, Neil was very scared and tired. He started to cry because the war was breaking his heart and tearing his family apart. In the other story " The sniper", the republican sniper kills a women during the war which is also go against his conscience. In a war, a soldier need and have to kill your enemy even if your enemy is a women. The story