How has point of view been used in the story 'The Sniper'?

Authors Avatar

John Leigh

How has point of view been used in the story ‘The Sniper’?

        Point of view has been used to great strength in the story of the sniper. From the moment the story begins it is used to draw us deep in. The introduction systematically sets the scene for us. The first bit of information we are given about the sniper is an external representation of him, ‘his face was the face of a student – thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of a fanatic.’ From this external point of view, we can learn a great deal about him, ‘the face of a student’ suggests he is young and in some ways, perhaps innocent to the art of warfare. He is still learning. However, this is quickly contrasted when we are told he has the ‘eyes of a man who is used to looking at death’. Now the point of view has changed, we see a much more war hardened man to which death is everyday. Not the ‘student’ that was described just but a moment ago. At this point it is almost as though the point of view is being used to give this man a more universal appearance, he is both a father and a son. Just a normal man in the extra ordinary scenario of war. The author then chases this with a fantastic third person point of view description of the snipers current physical and emotional situation.
        Swiftly following this, we taste the addition of a new character into the story. ‘the enemy’. We see everything from the snipers point of view, all he knows is that here is an enemy, nothing more. The dialogue is very emotionless, its purely actions. Again, all of this is from the snipers point of view. ‘The sniper raised his rifle and fired. The head fell heavily on the turret wall. The woman darted toward the side street. The sniper fired again. The woman whirled round and fell with a shriek into the gutter’. This description is more like a log of events, no emotion, no real detail, just facts. We are given so little detail because the sniper himself would not be able to see much more of the woman than a rough figure from his position on the rooftops. This gives a very machine like quality to the sniper; he has no time to surrender to emotion, just doing what is needed of him.

Join now!

        It is almost half way through the story before we get even the first spoken words from the sniper. ‘Christ, he muttered, “I’m hit”. This draws us much deeper into the character and his situation. In fact, that is all that the sniper says throughout the entire story. The dialogue isn’t necessary because thanks to the use of point of view we can constantly hear exactly what the sniper is thinking. As we draw up to the death of the ‘enemy sniper’ all we can think about is the death of the enemy, the necessity to kill another man. ‘He ...

This is a preview of the whole essay