The Sniper vs Warzone

Liam O’Flaherty’s story The Sniper and Framing Hanley’s song Warzone have a similar theme; the texts show how society uses people as their puppet. The central people in both contents are following through with society’s beliefs and commands without a second thought. As shown in The Sniper, his one and only goal was to kill the enemy sniper and, in the end, he does but finds the enemy to be his own brother. He did not question his whoever positions him to become a sniper or ask who the person is, besides the enemy, which he is meant to kill. Instead, he does what society is to expect from anyone in that position and ends up his brother’s murderer. Also, in the lyrics from Warzone, ‘Change your ways for them, It’s all part of the game we play’, illustrates that this central person is strongly influence by society. This person says that they transforms their lives for society and is actively apart of its “game”. That demonstrates how they did not thoroughly think about giving their life to someone else’s decisions and actions.  In result of the central people following through, a wave of regret and hate for society fills them. In The Sniper, he starts “cursing the war” and his “lust for battle died in him” after he kills the enemy sniper, like he is told to do. The Sniper follows through with society’s belief and expectations of him to only end up regretting his actions but most importantly his brother’s killer. Likewise, as seen in the lyrics, ‘Don’t know how I’m gonna make it today, Frustrated and losing myself in the part, Now the white coats come and put me away’, the idea of regret of giving up their life to society is prominently displayed. The central person realizes that giving their lives, at the time, sounds acceptable but develops into a life of frustration. In addition, it is not really their life after they had given it up to society. In conclusion, both texts show that we should think and make decisions for ourselves, otherwise, we might end up damaged by the actions we never fully agree to in the first place.