31 pages • 1 hour read
American Sniper
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Key Figures
Chris Kyle
American Sniper is the autobiography of Chris Kyle (1974-2013), a former U.S. Navy SEAL, considered the deadliest sniper in U.S. military history. Significant portions of American Sniper focus on Chris’s activities during combat in the Middle East, activities that range from busting into houses, to providing support fire, to successfully hitting faraway targets. The short, punchy paragraphs of Chris’s prose help to capture the fast, tense pace of the action. More than a record of adrenaline-fueled combat, American Sniper often turns away from Chris’s time in Iraq to consider his background, ideology, and competing loyalties.
Chris Kyle came from a close-knit Texas family; during his lifetime, he was an observant Christian and a devoted father, who by his own account, took his children hunting and taught them traditional values, such as respect for their elders. He also enjoyed an honest and affectionate relationship with his wife, Taya. One of the central conflicts in American Sniper involves Chris’s competing duties to his family and to his country. A celebrated serviceman and devoted family man, he was forced to choose which form of excellence would define his life and become his primary commitment.
In his military role, Chris was defined by contrasting qualities. Capable of raucous and irreverent humor, he was also fiercely devoted to the men who served alongside him. Uncomfortable with glorifying his accomplishments as a SEAL sniper (and convinced that luck played a role in his high kill count), he was also capable of speaking candidly about military strategy and the use of force. Chris used the values and insights that he formulated during his time as a SEAL to found a company, Craft International, that would offer specialized training in tactics and weaponry.
Taya
Taya is Chris Kyle’s wife, a lively and honest woman who is, in many ways, a good match for her husband. The two of them have strong Christian values and come from families that get along, but their life together is nonetheless marked by a recurring conflict: the issue of whether Chris should devote himself to the armed forces, or whether he is more necessary to his family back home. Though Chris eventually chooses family, his time as a SEAL puts considerable strain on his relationship with Taya.
Although Chris’s own narration calls attention to such tension, Taya is given an important voice in American Sniper. She serves as a secondary narrator, her brief accounts designed to alternately give glimpses into her life without Chris and offer a different point of view on events and scenarios that Chris mentions. The second perspective helps the reader to justify Taya’s stance; instead of hampering Chris’s exceptional work as a sniper and a serviceman, she wants Chris to be exceptional as a father and a family man.
Ryan Job
A jolly yet hardworking SEAL, Ryan Job joins Chris’s platoon and proves his worth, getting in good physical shape. Ryan, or Biggles, to use his nickname, is rendered blind by combat; however, he remains dedicated to the military and determined to live a full life after leaving the SEALs. After going hunting, climbing mountains, and starting a family—all while blind—Ryan dies when an operation goes wrong. He is, even outside the military, an embodiment of the stoic and forward-thinking spirit that Chris admires.
Marc Lee
Marc is a very religious member of Chris’s platoon, a young man who had careers in professional soccer and the ministry before joining the SEALs. Like Ryan Job, Marc—who is killed in combat—represents a harrowing personal loss to Chris. Marc’s family honors Marc by supporting the SEALs and other branches of the armed forces after his death; Marc’s mother Debbie becomes president of America’s Mighty Warriors, an organization that helps veterans as they return to civilian life.
Dauber
Though described briefly, Dauber is a representative of the reliability and fighting spirit that Chris sees as a SEAL’s essential qualities. Chris, knowing Dauber’s worth, makes sure that the two of them are assigned to the same missions.
Runaway
An unreliable soldier, who, instead of providing covering fire for Chris, tends to run away. Chris is unafraid to criticize military strategists and Iraqi forces for incompetence and obliviousness, and Runaway’s actions are proof that American ground soldiers are also capable of poor performance.
Chris’s Son and Daughter
Though unnamed in the text, Chris’s son and daughter are important figures. Chris is divided between spending more time with them and continuing his combat duties, ultimately choosing the former course of action. At the end of American Sniper, he mentions that he takes his children hunting, passing on to them some of his own interests in guns and the wilderness.
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