As the old saying goes, there are two sides to every story. This is because in real life, and when analyzing literary works, people often perceive situations differently than one another. What the reader and that characters perceive to be happening in a story is not always what it seems. This claim can be applied to the stories that I read- “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, and “The Highway Man” by Alfred Noyes. Based on what I read in “The Sniper,” the story’s main character does something that is a work of irony. The sniper is being attacked on a rooftop and gets shot. When the sniper goes to kill the other sniper, he does but the lust of war is drawn out of him. Then, when he goes to see the sniper that he killed, he sees that he killed his own brother. From the reading, I now know that war has no boundaries, just how people show no mercy for something that will benefit them. The author wrote in “The Lottery” that winning isn’t the best thing. When Tessie’s husband Bill won, she demanded a recount. Then they put all their children in and then the family redrew and Tessie won. When Tessie won, it meant that she was the one to be stoned to death. Showing that winning isn’t always a good thing. While showing no mercy for her loved ones, Tessie showed a heartless person who died, though some die to save loved ones. In “The Highway Man,” Bess shows true love that will do anything for the highway man. When the Redcoats come, they capture Bess and she cannot warn the highwayman because they gag her. She then shoots herself to scare off the highway man with the sound of the bullet. Though her efforts were in vain, for when the highway man learned of this, he rode screaming down the road where the Redcoats shot him dead. The reader did not expect for the highway man to be killed after Bess killed herself, like going for some stones could be a bad thing. In “The Lottery,