Summary Of Imagery In The Sniper By William O Flaherty

There are many different literature devices that authors can use to improve and beautify their poetry, but one of the greatest is imagery. Imagery is a descriptive language that helps the reader to visualize all the details surrounding the character. The more elements the writer uses the better understanding of the story readers have, and the more engaged with it they become. It relies on five senses, such as touch, smell, sight, taste and sound, to produce a wider and clearer picture in the reader’s mind. However, the advantage of imagery doesn’t just have the ability to describe surrounding things, feelings, thoughts and senses of the character, but also to prepare the reader for a better understanding of the meaning or main idea, and the …show more content…
The majority of imagery he uses is based on such senses as sight and sound. Describing the horror of the atmosphere that surrounding the protagonist, O’Flaherty, makes it very clear to imagine the world that the sniper lives in. Reading the story from the first lines you get surrounded by feeling of fear and horror of war. For example: “The long June twilight faded into night. Dublin lay enveloped in darkness” and only the moon light “casting a pale light over the dark waters of the Liffey”. The story takes place at night time purposely, because darkness give readers the feeling of terror and anxious expectations that something bad is about to happen. Also it makes it harder for a soldier to control the situation and stay alert. Besides visual imagery the author strengthens the picture with sounds, such as “the heavy guns roared” and after that “through the city machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms”. He uses words like “guns roared” or “like dogs barking” to make us to “hear” exactly how it actually sounded, in which return making it feel real to the audience, and helping us better understand the settings of his story as well as becoming a part of it. In “The Sniper” O’Flaherty does not use very much imagery to open up some hiding meanings or ideas of the story, because he already tells us exactly what is going on …show more content…
In this story the young girl “was going away” from her slow, lonely and oppressed life. Every day for her was the same, she would get up late, eat, read, play the piano and cards and go to bed. She did everything slow on purpose to fill her long and boring day. But today is going to be different, she thought. Today she is going away and thinking of it, looking through the window, “her eyes would shift from the near shadowed fields, to the west hills, where the sun had dropped a strip of light” then she would look to the woods that seemed “like black scars one minute, and like friendly sanctuaries the next”. She was confused, and we see this confusion in elements surrounding her. Again, the author does not say it, but he gives us those hints that helps us to read the character’s mind. Just like when her eyes would go from “shadowed fields” to sunny fields, or from woods that look like “black scars” at one point and “friendly sanctuaries” at another. Imagery supports the girl’s feelings: when she dreams of her new life, everything around her becomes bright and shiny, when she wakes up, all becomes dark and depressing. Bates also uses sounds to describe the atmosphere around: “in the dining room someone was rattling teacups, an unbearable, horribly domestic sound”. She started to play waltz, “it was slow, dreamy tune, ta-tum, tum, ta-tum, tum, ta-tum, tum”, then she sat