The Sniper

Situational irony results when the audience expects a certain outcome, but the actual outcome is much different, even the opposite. Another way to think about situational irony is a “twist ending.” In “The Sniper,” the sniper kills his own brother when he thinks he has bested a threatening opponent.

With personification, an author imparts human or humanlike qualities to inanimate objects. O’Flaherty compensates for the anonymity of his characters by using personification. Objects have the vitality that humans in the story lack. For instance, we hear heavy guns “roar[ing]” (Paragraph 1). The armored vehicle comes to life: “The sniper could hear the dull panting of the motor” (Paragraph 7). The vehicle is a “gray monster” (Paragraph 7). When O’Flaherty describes the enemy sniper’s death, he writes that the rifle “bounded off the pole” (Paragraph 19), implying that the object had agency. Similarly, the “bullet flattened itself” (Paragraph 4). Personification shifts the point of view from the individual to the personified object. It adds activity and liveliness to the setting.