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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do the Free Staters want?

2. Where does the sniper get shot?

3. What is the risk that the sniper takes in order to check out his dead enemy's identity?

4. After he calms down, what does the sniper decide to do next?

5. When he finally gets a clear shot at his enemy, what is the protagonist feeling?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the sniper react to being shot?

2. What striking contrast is there in the description that opens the story with the description that closes the first paragraph?

3. What risk does the sniper take at the beginning of the story, and what are the consequences?

4. What is the symbolic significance of the O'Connell Bridge and the River Liffey?

5. What causes the sniper to suddenly lose his enthusiasm for the battle?

6. In the sentence "Almost immediately, a bullet flattened itself against the parapet of the roof," (96), what is being personified and what purpose does the personification of the bullet serve?

7. Who is the protagonist of "The Sniper" and what is he fighting for?

8. What problem is created by the sniper's wound?

9. When the reader first encounters the sniper, what is he doing, and why?

10. What are the two contrasting descriptions of the sniper given when he is first introduced?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the symbolic value of the description of setting in the story's opening paragraph.

Essay Topic 2

What causes the sniper's abrupt change of emotion once he has killed the other sniper? Why does this occur only after he has killed the enemy sniper, and not when he kills the first person, the machine gunner?

Essay Topic 3

The words "dead" and "deadened" occur repeatedly in the paragraphs about the sniper getting hit with a bullet. Explain the thematic purpose of this repetition.

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This section contains 777 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample