Vu | 1
Marisa Vu
Mr.Kelly
CP English 1A
1st October, 2018
‘Theme in Literature’
Today I will be talking about 3 works of art in the literary platform that all share a similar
theme. ‘A Country Divided’ by Patricia McMahon, ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ a song by the band
‘U2’, & ‘The Sniper’ by Liam O'Flaherty.
First off, ‘A Country Divided’ is the story of Ireland trying to gain their independence
from Britain’s rule. Not everyone was looking for independence, however, so the country was
split in half between the people who supported being ruled by Britain and the other half which is,
Republicans that want independence. In my opinion, the theme for “This Country Divided” is,
‘Trying to balance peace with opinions’. This is my claim because the whole basis of the war
was started because many citizens had two different opinions, but failed to realize that later on,
they’ll have to go onto a solution of some sort so that both parties are satisfied with the results as
seen in this quote from the story; “People on both sides of the walls who want peace keep
working to stop the fighting. In 1997, a new ceasefire went into effect. Peace talks began, which
led to the signing of a peace accord in 1998.” The setting of this story goes hand and hand with
one of the stories, ‘The Sniper’ which was based about the same war and time frame.
One of the massacres that happened was called ‘Bloody Sunday’ which was written about
unarmed protesters who were shot by a British army regiment in 1972.
The song called “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by the band ‘U2’, is an Irish rock band that
was grouped together in Dublin. Their song was based on the tragedy that I have mentioned
previously, and in the song, if you listen and observe carefully, there is a pause feature in the
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