At the beginning of the story, the narrator describes the young Republican sniper by saying,

This description portrays the Republican sniper as a young, disciplined soldier, who has experienced the horrors of combat firsthand and is used to the anxiety, stress, and intensity of battle. The "cold gleam" of a fanatic contributes to the sniper's description and portrays him as a devoted extremist, who is willing to die for the Republican cause. As a fanatic, the sniper is depicted as an enthusiastic, impressionable individual.

O’Flaherty juxtaposes the sniper's young age and fighting experience by writing that the Republican sniper has the "face of a student" but "the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death." This juxtaposition underscores the sniper's loss of innocence, and the audience recognizes that war has transformed him into a violent killing machine. The sniper is also portrayed as an impulsive, energetic young man, who is "too excited to eat" and experiences an adrenaline rush when an enemy vehicle approaches. After creating a successful ruse and killing the enemy sniper stationed on the opposite rooftop, O'Flaherty writes,

The Republican sniper's emotional reaction depicts him as a conflicted, jaded individual, who retains his humanity and struggles to cope with the trauma of war. The sniper's brief moment of remorse ends when his gun accidentally goes off and startles him back to reality. Tragically, the sniper is curious and discovers that the enemy sniper he killed was his brother.