By Liam O’Flaherty

The Sniper

The Sniper follows a young man who finds himself in the midst of a civil war

The young man is Irish, a nation beset by war with England“Republicans and Free Staters were waging

civil war.”Ireland is split between citizens who would like

to be separate from England and citizens who wish to be governed by England

As a sniper, he works alone and is charged with the task of secretly stopping informants and ground forces from advancing

Brief Summary/Historical Background

The young sniper finds himself the target of another sniper and must fight for his lifeHe faces a bit of a moral dilemma (internal

conflict) over having to kill anotherWe are given his thoughts to understand how

his mindset changes through his experience in a battleground setting

There is an ironic twist to the resolution of the narrative that presents a conflict for the young sniper

Brief Summary/Historical Backgroud

We have 6 tasks to complete as we develop our understanding of The SniperNarrative Structure/PlotImagery & MoodLiterary Elements/SIFTThemeCharacterizationForeshadowing

Activities/Tasks

Narrative structure involves the unfolding of the storyThere are 6 basic elements to the structure of a narrative

Exposition: the background information (characters, setting, etc); how the story begins; the author exposes information to the reader

Inciting Incident: the action that interrupts the action in the story; the beginning of the conflict

Rising Action: action, after the inciting incident, that builds the narrative to a critical moment of suspense

Climax: The highest point of action; the critical moment of suspense

Falling Action: action after the climax that begins to close the narrative structure (loose ends are tied up, questions are answered/revealed

Denouement/Resolution: the conclusion of the narrative where the conflict is solved

Narrative Structure/Plot

Imagery is the collection of literary elements that appeal to a readers sensesAny writing that appeals to what you can:

SeeHearTasteFeelSmell

Imagery has a direct relationship to mood, the emotional response of the readerMood is how you feel as you read the work, based

on the imagery the author has used to make the text come to life

Imagery and Mood

SIFT is an acronym that means Symbol/Imagery/Figurative Language/Tone

Symbols are objects that represent both themselves and an outside object or idea

Figurative language is a wide-ranging term that encompasses many literary elementsWe will focus on diction

Diction is the word choice of the author used to create a strong positive or negative connotationConnotation is an implied meaning within a word that makes it

sound either positive or negative; authors use this for effect

Tone is the author’s emotion/attitude in a literary work

Literary Elements/SIFT

Theme is a universal message the author is attempting to create about a given subject that is present in a literary work

A theme is never a single word!!!!!!!!!!!!!!A theme begins with a single word—we call

this a thematic topicThe task is to build your topic into a thematic

statementYou will need to think critically about what point

the author is making about his topic through the work

Theme

Characterization refers to how a character is developed through thoughts, actions, dialogue

More than thinking of character traits, examine how the author develops the character through his description, his personal thoughts, thoughts of others concerning the character

Understand how characters can be static or dynamic, and whyStatic characters stay the same throughout the work;

they never grow or learnDynamic characters change throughout the work; they

grow as individuals or learn a valuable lesson through the development of the plot

Characterization

Foreshadowing is the authors way of embedding clues as to what might happen next in the literary work

Foreshadowing involves the reader thinking critically about the text to make an inference as to what may come next

Foreshadowing is NOT guessing!Guessing involves no thought or background

informationForeshadowing involves making an inference

using the information provided in the text

Foreshadowing