The Sniper Analysis

External discoveries that lead to more profound internal discoveries allow us to gain an understanding of the world we live in. Discoveries can suddenly trigger an epiphany or the realisation and understanding may be more of a gradual process. This experience can manifest in many different ways. It can result in a broadening of the mind, whether this changes our understanding of the global community in a positive or negative way. The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara, The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty, and Paperman directed by John Kahrs all explore this concept through the use of both literary and visual techniques. The Motorcycle Diaries explores the impact of Che’s discoveries in South America including his understanding of the widespread …show more content…
The Sniper explores the engagement between ‘a sniper’ from the Republican Army and ‘enemy sniper’ of the British security forces during the Irish War of Independence. In the end the sniper kills the ‘enemy sniper’ only to discover upon inspection of the corpse that it his brother. The story ends at this cliffhanger and the impact of this discovery is primarily on the reader. For the majority of the story, the reader is lead to believe that the enemy is foreign and is all out against the reader and friendly sniper. The enemy sniper even gravely hurts the readers and a sense of empathy is created through the use of vivid language but also disdain for the enemy sniper. However, after the revelation at the end, the reader is left speechless and penitent of their harboured hostile emotions. In this sense the reader has been exposed to the notion of the ambiguity between enemy and ally during times of war. In this sense The Sniper shows how an discovery can broaden narrow minded views on the difference between ally and enemy during times of …show more content…
The protagonist is portrayed as dissatisfied with his lonely life, which mainly consists of a stereotypical office job. However, this all takes a turn upon his discovery of a beautiful woman during his morning commute. Here through the discovery of the woman the protagonist realised that his world is not just full of boring, narcissistic, or cynical, people but others seeking some small measure of happiness. This is evident in the way other characters are coloured and dressed. Every single character other than the protagonist and woman are completely black and white and either were hats that hide their faces or are wearing the same clothing. Contrarily the woman wears a prominent red lipstick, emphasising her as an outlier in the protagonists world and the impact it has head on his perception of his no longer dull