<p>Cathcart</p><p>Literary Response and Analysis “The Sniper”</p><p>1. A theme is the ______of a story, which gives ______into life or reveals some ______. </p><p>2. The following are steps taken in order to find the theme of a piece of literature:</p><p>1. Look at the subject or topic of the piece because theme makes a revelation about the subject.</p><p>2. Think about whether the ______. Often theme is realized through what a character ______.</p><p>3. Think about how the ______is ______.</p><p>4. Look at the ______.</p><p>5. Test your statement of the theme against the entire story, not just a piece of it.</p><p>6. Keep in mind that there can be more than ______theme. </p><p>3. List three examples of universal themes:</p><p>-</p><p>-</p><p>-</p><p>Reading Check:</p><p>1. Why does the sniper kill the old woman?</p><p>2. What happens to him after he fires his weapon?</p><p>3. What does the sniper do to trick his enemy?</p><p>4. What discovery does the sniper make at the end of the story? Did you predict this outcome? Cathcart</p><p>Interpretations:</p><p>5. Explain the irony in the story’s last sentence: “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face.”</p><p>6. What facts are we told directly about the sniper? What can you infer about his character? Think, in particular, about his ability to perform in the face of fear and stress.</p><p>Told Directly Inference</p><p>7. How do you think the author, O’Flaherty, want the reader to view the sniper? Is he a cold-blooded killer, a soldier doing his duty, or a man caught in a tragic situation? How do the sniper’s actions change your opinion of him at various moments in the story?</p><p>8. This story revolves around an external conflict, the sniper’s life-or-death struggle. Explain the internal conflict the sniper also faces. How is his internal conflict resolved?</p><p>9. How would you state the theme of this story- that is, the point the writer is making about war, especially civil war, and what it can do to human beings?</p><p>10. How do the resolutions of the story’s conflicts help to reveal this theme?</p><p>11. Do you think the story is improved by the surprise ending, or does the ending seem an unfair trick to make you pay attention to the story’s message? Explain your answer.</p><p>Write:</p><p>Two important parts of this story are missing. One is the “before” narrative, telling why the two brothers ended up on opposite sides of the war. The other is the “after” narrative, describing what Cathcart happens to the sniper after he discovers he has killed his brother. Write a paragraph in your journals summarizing what you imagine would be told in the “before” or “after” narrative.</p>