Arrows and Bullets, the Story of the Future and Past: a Thematic Comparison between The Hunger Games, and The Sniper
For this blog entry I have chosen to do a thematic comparison between the short story "The Sniper" by Liam O'Flaherty and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Though at first the title or even the subject of this blog might seem strange, both stories are more relatable to one another than one might think. Both books while vastly different are also very similar due to a theme that can be attributed to both of them. A theme that relates to the violent content of each piece of literature, a theme that relates to growing up through difficult and traumatizing events, a theme that has been the subject of many stories, the loss of innocence, and growing up too fast.
The Loss of Innocence in both pieces of literature is apparent, with both characters having to carry out murders and assassinations for the sake of survival, and how the remorse and regret for those killings haunts both characters. Both texts deal with a very human character that is not simply a killing machine, but does so for their own self-preservation. In the sniper the nameless main character is tensed and ready to kill at the start and does not feel regret at assassinating, an enemy solider, or an informant disguised as old woman. In the Hunger games Katniss starts of as a girl concerned with providing for her family, but with the events that soon transpire, she is eventually placed in a tournament where she realizes that is kill or be killed, and kills many other contestants in order to save herself.
Even the settings of both narratives relate to the theme, in the hunger games Katniss lives in a hostile and post-apocalyptic future, where unless one is fortunate enough to live in the capitol, they are tasked with feeding their hungry, and impoverished families with the risk of being chosen to participate in a tournament that will pit contestants against each other in a fight to the death. In the sniper the nameless sniper lives during the era of civil war in Ireland were the terrorist organization the IRA, the Irish Republican Army (which I believe that the sniper is a part of) , which is fighting for the separation of Ireland form the United Kingdom and Britain. During the time period in which the sniper was set the war was at its peak the whole of Ireland was in chaos. Rebels and supports of the UK alike were killing each other in broad daylight. It’s their worlds that make a teenage girl from a poor community, and college student, grow up in order to deal with the hardships of their world.
As a whole both stories might seem different but they share a common theme, the loss of innocence. These narratives give us an insight into what violence experienced at a young age might feel like and the regret that comes from it. Because unlike many other stories about killings and murder both these characters are human and do feel regret, though the nameless sniper learns this at a high cost. The themes both these stories contain can still be felt around the world, many children are forced to grow up too fast as a result of the conditions they live in, whether it be war, or poverty. Both these stories are a look at the thing that we are all face with when coming of age, the loss of innocence.
