The Sniper Short Story Summary and Thematic Paragraph

    There is a revolution for independence taking place in Ireland in the early 1920’s. It's now evening in the city of Dublin during the month of June and a republican sniper is laying on the roof tops by the O'Connell bridge watching for any enemies. Hungry with nothing to eat since morning, he continued to lay on the roof until he decided to quickly smoke a cigarette when an undercover sniper out of nowhere shoots at him and luckily gets missed by the bullet. He then noticed an armoured vehicle crossing the bridge and stopping. The sniper anxiously wanted to  start shooting at the vehicle but there was no point since the armour in the vehicle was too strong. He then spots an old women that is walking towards the vehicle who noticed the republican sniper and points her finger towards him. The armoured vehicle spots the sniper and gets out the machine turret and begins to shoot the sniper on the roof tops. The sniper had no choice but to shoot the man on the turret so that is what he did. Fortunately he also shoots the old women (who he realizes was an informer) falls into a gutter. The sniper steadily shoots the  man using the turret as well. As the armoured vehicle moved away after the tragic event, the Sniper still had to deal with the other undercover sniper in the other end of the street. Then as soon as he started to think everything was over, gets shot by the enemy in the other end. The sniper realizes the bullet was shot into his arm. As he rips his shirt using his pocket knife, he opens his field dressing kit in one of his other pockets and opens an iodine bottle, he dips some of the liquid to his wound as he applies bandages to the wound and then comes up with a plan to get rid of the enemy sniper once and for all. His plan was to fool the undercover sniper on faking his death by taking off his cap and placing it over the muzzle of his rifle. He then decides to put the muzzle over the parapet so the enemy can see it and get distracted by it, so then the Sniper can have a perfect chance to shoot his enemy. He becomes very successful by lifting his revolver above the edge of the parapet and shooting him. He gets a good shot and watches as his enemy sniper falls off the roof in the opposite side of the street. Curious, the Sniper gets to the streets and wanted to know how the enemy sniper looked like. Once he reached to him he realizes the enemy sniper was his own brother.

    War can not only lead to harsh conflict but can also affect many families in a negative way. In this case, in this short story "The Sniper", the main character the "Sniper" shoots the enemy sniper who realizes that the enemy was his own blood brother. This shows the cruelty that can occur during conflict, which can not only split peoples ideologies by starting violence, but can also split family to end up killing one another. Realizing that the brothers didn't know each others identities and thinking that the two of them were just enemies are another reason the author shows that violence and conflict can tear families apart.  

ISU Task 4 Blog Entry 2 ~ Night by Elie Wiesel

ISU BLOG POST #2 ~ Night By Elie Wiesel

The following poem will discuss the social issue of the story as well as what the main character (author) has to face as a Jew during WWII.

~Poem~

The year of the 40's, 

Following by the late 30's,

The second great war rises from the dark death of millions,

Bringing destruction and chaos back towards the only world we have,

Walking down the streets,

Without being one of the deceased,

A miracle they say,

But no,

As cold blood enters,

The gas chambers inverter's,

Rises to bring in the slender,

Being discriminated,

Seeing the chambers smoke out the incineration of many,

A Jew they say,

I'am a Jew,

I'am a Jew watching the rest of my family die,

I feel no pain,

Because I have nothing to gain,

I see the light shining through my tear drops,

I will escape this he says as he reaches his hands towards my mother and sisters,

Rising to the sky,

They'll stay in a better place now,

Because I see their souls rising out of their dead bodies.

~End of Poem~

It's WWII and this poem focuses on the harsh things Elie faces in the concentration camp. The poem also discusses the social issue of the story due to the fact that many Jewish men, women and children were being discriminated and sent to concentration camps by  German soldiers. As mentioned in the poem, the gas chambers were a big part of the story because many were forced to go in their and die within a couple of minutes. Elie faces that when he sees people dying in those gas chambers which is a horrific moment for him as a young teen.

ISU Task 4 Blog Entry 1 ~ Night by Elie Wiesel

Night by Elie Wiesel

There are various types of social issues that the author went through in the novel. This is mainly due to the setting of the story itself which takes place during World War II. Some social issues that were discussed in the novel were; the main character more known as the author himself that grew up as a Jew during World War II. This can be a social issue because of Anti-Semitism that was taking place. The discrimination of Jews were a big a big part of WWII and Elie as the main character of the novel had to go through the discrimination of Jews because he was a Jew himself.

Even though the horrors of WWII is over Anti-Semitism is still taking place in our world today. The following news article discusses some events Jewish leaders in countries like Lithuania, Latvia and Ethonia are going through. The Jewish leaders reported that they as the leaders are feeling very uncomfortable as Anti-Semitism is taking place once again.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/03/12/jews-in-baltics-fear-creep-anti-semitism/

                              A Jewish Elder celebrating a ceremony to honour soldiers 



The news article, easily without hesitation can relate to the story. Nazi Germany has fallen and the discrimination of killing Jews have ended. It's been almost a century since the last world war and there is still small amounts of Anti-Semitism that is taking place around the world, in this article, Europe.

The following pictures show a modern day sign of Anti-Semitism and the second picture that goes back to World War 2 when Anti-Semitism was big. The two images can easily relate together and shows that there are still some people that have hate for Jewish people around the world.

All of these can relate to the story because of as mentioned before, the main character Elie goes through a lot of discrimination by Nazis and Anti-Semitists. Some events the main character went through is by going to concentration camps and getting punished just because he was a Jew.  

Republican Sniper Shoots Brother (News Report)

Today’s article                                                                                                                   June 20^th 1922 

              REPUBLICAN SNIPER SHOOTS BROTHER 

The conflict between the republicans and the rebels continue as Ireland try’s its best to gain independence. Last Thursday night a republican sniper was alleged for accidently shooting his brother in downtown Dublin by the O’Connell Bridge. The republican sniper now faces deep depression as he realizes that the other undercover sniper that was trying to shoot him was his brother.

The war for Ireland’s independence killed many innocent civilians and soldiers. But this tragic incident struck mostly everyone in the western world. The 26 year old republican sniper enlisted to fight for the Republican Party three months ago. He stated that he had no idea his younger brother was part of this bloody civil war. The night where he shot his brother was a “terrible night” he also stated. He was hungry with no food and nothing else to eat and he was laying on top of a building by the O’Connell Bridge until he noticed an undercover sniper that started shooting him. Though, he had no idea who started shooting him, started to shoot him back. The republican sniper also got wounded by this sniper dual when a tank arrived and noticed the republican sniper and started to shoot him with a turret. Though, the sniper became lucky when he got a direct shot at the man controlling the turret in the tank. He quoted that “I was the luckiest man alive at that point”. He then focused on shooting the undercover sniper to get the sniping dual over with. So with a quick plan the sniper becomes successful in shooting the other undercover sniper alleged to be about 45 metres away in the other end of the street.

Though, the deadly civil war still happening in Ireland, the Irish police convicted the republican sniper to jail. The younger brother on the other hand was sent to his home town 453 kilometres away east of Dublin for his funeral. After a short interview with the republican sniper he explained to the Irish police that he had no idea that he shot his own brother since it was so dark.

            The older brother is now faced with harsh consequences in the jail for 10 years, even though he tried to explain what really happened in the sniping dual. Both names were also covered from the media due to identity reasons.

Both brothers grew up together until the age of 18 when they attended to college. The two brothers weren’t as close when growing up either. With their parents dead during the civil war, both brothers were informed about their parent’s death but decided to not attend the funeral because of the heavy fighting in the area where the funeral was taking place. After the Great War the world is still going through heavy conflict and many western countries such as the United States and Canada are both hoping for this deadly war to end as soon as possible.