The sniper has a heartless side to him with no guilt and a cold-blooded killer instinct. His appearance tells a lot about him especially his eyes. The writer describes them as: ‘the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death’ and ‘the eyes of the fanatic’. The sniper is well trained because he shot an old woman with one bullet: ‘the woman darted towards the side street. The sniper fired. The woman whirled round and feel with a shriek into the gutter.’ This shows the woman isn’t as old as the writer describes her. He is a cold-blooded killer: ‘a man who is used to looking at death’. The sniper comes well prepared for battle: ‘beside him lay his rifle and over his shoulders were slung a pair of field glasses’, ‘he drew his knife from his pocket’, ‘taking out his field dressing’ and ‘he broke the neck of the iodine bottle’.
The sniper is intelligent because he outsmarts the other sniper when he is wounded: ‘he thought of a plan’, ‘the cap slipped into the street below. Then catching his rifle in the middle, the sniper dropped his left hand over the roof and let it hang lifelessly’ and ’the sniper thought he had killed his man’. The sniper is brave because he goes out alone to fight in the war: ‘a republican sniper on a rooftop is going to face the consequences of the fighting’. He is determined to kill the enemy: ‘he must kill that enemy’. The sniper is young probably in his early twenties: ‘his face was the face of a student- thin and ascetic’.
The other side to the sniper is his human side where in part of the story he feels guilt. The sniper is excited about his job: ‘he had been too excited to eat’. He is also nervous: ‘taking a flask of whiskey from his pocket, he took a short draught’ and ‘his heart beat faster’. He isn’t made of steel and feels pain: ‘he ground his teeth to overcome the pain’. He feels guilty about killing his enemy: ‘he revolted from the sight of the shattered mass of his dead enemy’. This shows there is a connection between the sniper and his enemy.
The sniper is disgusted at the sight of his enemy dying in pain: ‘the lust of battle died in him’ and ‘he became bitten by remorse’. This change in him happened because there was a connection between the brothers, which proves blood is thicker than water. The sniper is curious to know who his enemy was: ‘he felt a sudden curiosity as to the identity of the enemy sniper whom he had killed’. He is affected quite badly by the death of the enemy sniper afterwards he begins to ‘gibber to himself’ and ‘his teeth chattered’.
There is a dramatic ending to the story, which is unexpected. I didn’t expect it to turn out the way it did. I thought the enemy would be someone the sniper knew but I didn’t expect it to be his brother. The ending is shocking because it is not expected. Now I am left wondering what affect it will have on the sniper and what he will tell his family.
I found the story interesting but it had a shocking ending, which I didn’t expect. When I started to read the story I thought the sniper didn’t have a choice in the matter because he is in the army and is only doing his job. I feel sorry for the sniper because he killed his brother and he probably feels gutted that he killed his brother accidentally but if his brother had killed him then his brother would have felt the same way. The message of the story is ‘Is civil war worth the damage it causes to families?’.
