Jafed G. Sanchez October 27, 2014
Mr. Furrey 9th Grade English Essay
Introduction:
In the short story “The Sniper,” the poem “Thoughts of Hanoi” and the print media “Patriotic Women of Philadelphia,” each piece expresses that war tears families apart. In “The Sniper,” a family is torn apart when a sniper kills another enemy sniper only to find out that the enemy sniper was his brother. In “Thoughts of Hanoi,” a family is torn apart after ten years of war and one; brother’s fear is that he is about to face his brother in battle and may have to kill him. Finally, in the print media “Patriotic Women of Philadelphia,” a family is torn apart when women stay behind at their homes and men go out to war to fight for their country. Each of these stories, poems or print media shows that no matter when or where war takes place, families are destroyed and no one really wins.
The Sniper:
In the story “The Sniper,” it talks about a Civil War between the Republicans and Free-Staters taking place in Ireland. While being on the rooftop he considered whether he should risk a smoke and so he lit up a cigarette. As soon as the enemy sniper fired he took cover below a chimney. Then he took a shot and killed the enemy sniper. He threw himself to the ground face down besides the corpse. He turned the body over and looked into his brother’s face.
The sniper had a very clear motive; he knew exactly what he needed to do and who he needed to do it. The narrator tells the reader “Morning must not find him on the rooftop.”(O’Flaherty) The sniper’s motivation contributes to the suspense in the story. The motivation also encourages the sniper to be more determined, anxious, scared, nervous and stressed. To conclude, this paragraph shows the sniper’s emotions from the story.
Throughout the story the sniper feels remorse for killing another person. In the story “The Sniper” it says,”The lust of battle died in him.” This learning is important because it shows the sniper that war can kill anything that stands in their way without knowing who the enemy is. This learning contributes to the conflict in the story because he found out that his enemy was his brother. To conclude, this paragraph describes how he feels about killing his enemy.
The sniper’s conflict was resolved when he killed the enemy sniper, free-state sniper. On page 5 of the story, the narrator informs readers that “Everywhere around was quite.”(O’Flaherty) The resolution resolves the external conflict because the sniper killed the enemy sniper. The sniper was able to resolve the internal conflict because he was able to resolve the external conflict. To conclude, this paragraph shows how the sniper’s problems were solved.
The theme of the short story “The Sniper” is that wars destroy families. This theme is evidence in the text when the sniper wonders “Perhaps he [the other sniper] had been in his company before the split in the army.” The importance of this theme is that the war destroyed their family twice; once when the army separated, secondly readers can infer. This theme is important because almost all readers have families. In conclusion, the short story of “The Sniper” is an example of how war can destroy families.
Thoughts of Hanoi:
In the poem “Thoughts of Hanoi,” it’s about two brothers who are going to battle against each other. One brother, the narrator, misses his brother who wants to know if home was still the same. In the poem, the narrator feels quite hopeless about the war ever ending and life returning to normal. His biggest fear, though, is that he will have to fight in a battle against his brother. The poem “Thoughts of Hanoi” shows how war can separate families and make them become enemies.
In the poem “Thoughts of Hanoi,” the narrator’s motive is to let his brother know that he’ll never hate him even though the war has come between them. The narrator, in his frustration, says, “I want to bury the past/to bury the future.” (Vinh6) The narrator’s motivation
