Character Sketch of The Sniper War. Death. Pain. Anger and remorse. None are pleasantries, but all are faced and handled every day. In Liam O'Flaherty's "The Sniper," all of these things are brought to an acute reality. To aid in his creation of such emotional conflict, O'Flaherty portrayed the sniper as a very controversial character. We can see this contrast in personality by looking at appearance, actions, and thoughts. "...the face of a student, thin and ascetic,...eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic." And so the sniper is described in a physical sense. Upon looking at the meaning of the words, we find an unexpected conflict of definition. O'Flaherty writes that the sniper's face is "that of a student." We think young, and vibrant. However, to describe his meaning, he goes on to say that his face is both "thin and ascetic." Also, gaunt, and displaying self-discipline; both qualities carried more so in adults than students. Also, it is stated that the sniper had "the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death.
