Ricardo Talavera

Jimenez

CP Eng. 01 Per. 2

10/2/13

Compare and Contrast Essay- Cranes & The Sniper

There are many great short stories out there,however, Cranes by Hwang Sunwon and

the Sniper by Liam OFlaherty really stand out. Both stories have excellent themes and really

explain the theme of the stories. Both of these stories share something in common, they both are

very ironic.

In The Sniper the main character is in war and he finds himself confronting an enemy

soldier so when he shoots him he ends up killing his own brother. It all starts with a lady advising

his enemy about the snipers location. so as soon as the sniper got his chance he shot the lady.

When the sniper got his chance he faked his death by putting his cap on the muzzle and making

it seem like he had shot him. so when his enemys cover was down he killed him, but little did he

know he had killed his brother. The Theme of this story is, There are no winners in war and

that is because no matter what you always end up losing something or someone.

In Cranes its about a story in Korea during their civil war. Two old friends meet again,

one is an officer and and the other is being arrested for being a communist. as the officer walks

his old friend to another village, he seems to remember some of his childhood memories and all

the things theyve been through. these memories cool the hatred and differences between them at

the end the officer lets him free after seeing the cranes.

The Sniper and Cranes show very good examples on life lessons. E.g. when the
republican sniper kills the driver of the tank (the enemy) and the informant he achieved his

success, though the death of both of them does not change the snipers intent to turn the tide of

the war to the benefit of the republican army, so he didn't really care about who he killed so in

that case he had no idea that he would be killing his own brother. Cranes is ironical because its

about these two friends who were friends as children but then got separated but reunited later.

The way they reunite is that one that is a communist is getting arrested by an officer which is the

communists friend. when they are walking to the other village they start talking and start to

remember their childhood memories so he lets him go while watching the cranes.