Plot and Events
This is the city where the story takes place.
What is Dublin, Ireland?
This is the side the main character fights for.
What are the Republicans?
This type of conflict occurs when opposing groups within the same country fight one another.
What is a civil war?
This technique uses sensory details to help readers imagine sights, sounds, and sensations.
What is imagery?
This is the broad subject the story explores through its violent events and tragic conclusion.
What is war?
This is what the Republican sniper does that reveals his position to the enemy early in the story.
What is lighting a cigarette?
This is the opposing political and military group whose sniper battles the protagonist.
Who are the Free Staters?
This Irish city is described as dark, quiet, and interrupted by gunfire at the beginning of the story.
What is Dublin?
When the narrator describes heavy guns as if they can roar, this figure of speech is used.
What is personification?
This feeling overwhelms the sniper after the excitement of battle fades and he considers what he has done.
What is remorse?
After being wounded in the arm, the sniper uses this trick to make his opponent believe he is dead.
What is raising his rifle with his cap on it to fake his death?
This civilian approaches the armored car and signals the Republican sniper's location.
Who is the old woman?
The main character spends most of the story positioned on top of one of these structures.
What is a rooftop?
This literary technique keeps readers anxious about whether the sniper will survive his duel.
What is suspense?
This theme is revealed when the two brothers end up fighting on opposite sides of the same national conflict.
What is the destructive power of political division?
This is the weapon the Republican sniper uses to kill his opponent after tricking him into standing up.
What is a revolver?
This physical and emotional contrast describes the protagonist: he has the face of one of these young people, yet the eyes of a hardened fighter.
Who is a student?
This famous Dublin landmark and nearby river help establish the story's location.
What is O'Connell Bridge and the River Liffey?
The ending is an example of this type of irony because the protagonist unknowingly kills someone whose identity makes the victory devastating.
What is situational irony?
The sniper's treatment of people as targets rather than individuals illustrates this harmful effect of war.
What is dehumanization?
This discovery, made when the sniper turns over his enemy's body, creates the story's shocking ending.
What is that the dead enemy sniper is his own brother?
This relationship between the two snipers makes the ending especially tragic.
What is brotherhood—the two enemies are brothers?
This historical conflict, fought from 1922 to 1923, forms the backdrop of O'Flaherty's story.
What is the Irish Civil War?
The story withholds the enemy sniper's identity until the end. This delayed revelation intensifies the emotional impact of the final sentence.
What is a surprise ending, or twist ending?
The final revelation suggests that in a civil war, even a military victory can become a personal tragedy because this happens to people who share a country, a history, and family bonds.
What is that civil war turns people against their own community and family?