He is unable to fire his gun. Why is it impossible for the sniper to leave the roof? Because there are other snipers aimed at him from opposite rooftops, and if he tries to move, he will be shot and killed.

transitive verb. 1 military : to surround with armed forces The army had besieged the castle. 2a : to press with requests : importune …

surrounded by military force

fanatic. a person motivated by irrational enthusiasm. His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic. thoughtful.

Definitions: Beleaguered: under siege. Spasmodically: happening intermittently, sudden. Ascetic: characterized by or suggesting the practice of severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons.

His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic. They were deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death. The author is trying to show the transition from innocence to “a man who is used to looking at death.”

1 : a fit, attack, or sudden increase or recurrence of symptoms (as of a disease) : convulsion 2 : a sudden violent emotion or action : outburst.

The old woman knew his position and could tell other enemies where he was. He had no choice but to kill her. He would probably justify it as her choosing the side of the enemy.

In the short story, the sniper views the old woman as simply an enemy, which corresponds to the theme of how war dehumanizes people involved in the conflict. The old woman is symbolic of war’s ability to dehumanize people and turn them into objects and enemies.

What conflict does the old woman cause for the sniper? She is revealing his location to the enemy. She is threatening to shoot him. She is a relative who is betraying him.

Immediately after shooting the enemy sniper, the protagonist sniper feels extreme remorse. The text specifically says remorse. He became bitten by remorse.

The irony in the last sentence of the story “The Sniper” is that the enemy from which the sniper had been protecting himself, that tries to kill the sniper, and that ends up getting killed by the sniper happens to be his own brother.

If he attempts to escape, he will be seen immediately, and probably killed. His injury also renders him unable to use his rifle. To do this, the Republican sniper places his hat on top of his rifle, and raises the cap into view, so it will look as if he is attempting to peer out from behind cover.

What happens as soon as the sniper strikes a match to light his cigarette? If the sniper had not tried to communicate with the enemy, he might not have been shot. If the sniper had not decided to smoke a cigarette, no one would be dead.

Explanation: In “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty, it is too risky for the sniper to smoke because the flash from his match could reveal his location to his enemies. Instinctively, he knows that his enemies are keeping watch as well. Because it is night, a flash from his match would draw attention to his position.

The sniper tricks his enemy by placing his hat on the end of his rifle and raising it above the parapets of the rooftop just enough to be seen. The sniper uses this opportunity to shoot his opponent with his revolver, thereby killing him and securing an escape from the rooftop.

However, what specifically makes him a target of the enemy sniper is his attempt to light a cigarette.

At the start of the story, the Republican Sniper is a cold-blooded killer that would do anything for the Republican Army which included killing an old woman. His feelings towards the battle evolved in the story because once he killed the other sniper, his lust for battle diminished.

The target audience was the naïve, unsophisticated, population of Ireland, whose average education ranged from the sixth to eight grades.

His teeth chattered, he began to gibber to himself, cursing the war, cursing himself, cursing everybody. It is the realization that the sniper has become part of the machinery of war that makes him feel remorseful. He has realized that his only purpose in consciousness is that of negation. This fills him with shame.

The irony is that the sniper kills his own brother. The story is set during the Irish civil war in the 1920’s. Each brother has chosen a different side on which to fight. During his battle with an enemy sniper, the author foreshadows the ending by showing how similar each shooter is.

Answer: The sniper tricks his enemy by placing his hat on the end of his rifle and raising it above the parapets of the rooftop just enough to be seen. When the hat is shot, the sniper pretends to die, throwing his useless rifle off the rooftop in an effort to make the scene more convincing.