The sniper is described as a fanatic. A fanatic is a person
whose interest in something or someone is irrational and
intense. What is the sniper fanatical about? What does the
author's use of the phrase "cold gleam" imply?
The sniper is a member of the Irish Republican Army. Though the story is quite brief, the reader can infer that the Irish civil war has brought great change to its protagonist. The phrase that the sniper has "the face of a student, thin and ascetic" implies that the sniper may have recently been a student but has taken up the arms of a soldier. Now warfare has transformed him. His "deep and thoughtful" eyes are "used to looking at death," and they even hold "the cold gleam of the fanatic" in his dedication to the Republican cause. The protagonist is only one of many young men who have joined either one side or the other of this brutal civil war.
The Sniper
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