The theme of the short story “The Sniper,” is that war reduces human beings to mere objects, which means that they have no names, no faces, they are just targets and nothing more. To support this theme Liam O'Flaherty refrains from describing any of his characters. War knows no limits, age, gender, location, time of the day or family ties. The story opens the eyes to how hatred and violence made a brother kill a brother. Violence is not the solution or the answer to anything.
The ironic ending:
The main literary device in the short story “The Sniper,” is the irony of the two snipers that are fighting on opposing sides. They are on the roof of buildings facing each other. They are both similar; they are both snipers and they both have a good shot. In the end the sniper ends up killing the other sniper. As he comes down from the building he begins to get curious about who he killed. He goes to see and realizes that he killed his own brother. However, this isn’t the only irony in action the other is that all of the sniper’s Free State enemies are his brothers, for they had been comrades in arms fighting for the same cause which is also very ironic. The fact that the author has based his language and narrating style on irony is actually a very well thought tool that enhances the feeling of ridiculousness towards the whole situation even more, showing how unnecessary and self-harming the civil-war was, splitting families and friends, people whom you once fought with not against.
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