The reaction to the sniper's realization underscores war's destructive nature.
O'Flaherty's story is one of distance. The sniper is at a considerable distance from his target. He maintains his emotional distance by focusing solely on the successful completion of his mission. At the end of the story, the sniper has come into close proximity with war's end result: "Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother's face."
Our reaction...
The reaction to the sniper's realization underscores war's destructive nature.
O'Flaherty's story is one of distance. The sniper is at a considerable distance from his target. He maintains his emotional distance by focusing solely on the successful completion of his mission. At the end of the story, the sniper has come into close proximity with war's end result: "Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother's face."
Our reaction to this realization is to immediately acknowledge the unlimited scope of war's destruction. The war made the sniper kill his own brother while his brother sought to kill him. Upon reading the story, we recognize that war has forced family members to kill one another. This revelation makes us feel that war's destruction makes social unity impossible.
To a great extent, we react the way we do because the story's ending confirms our beliefs about war. "The Sniper" does not valorize war. Even though we do not know what will happen to the sniper, the destruction of war had become painfully clear. As a result of the sniper's actions, a family has been ruined. Our reaction to what the sniper discovers validates our worst fears about war.
War takes so much in the way of human life that we can become desensitized to it. However, when we see a personal story about what happens in the course of a war, we are reminded of its brutality. The sniper's realization at the end of the story reminds us of this fact.
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