Compare And Contrast The Open Boat And A Good Man Is Hard To Find

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“The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane and “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O'Connor both embody situational irony through plot twists drawing large amounts of attention to a reader's unwarranted biases. Both Crane and O'Connor, in their stories “The Open Boat” and “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, uses situational irony to enhance the intensity of emotion experienced by the reader. When reading The Open Boat and A Good Man Is Hard to Find, the excitement level is enhanced through the author’s use of situational irony. The situational irony in both short stories occurs due to the difference between what the reader expects and what the author actually reveals in the final scene or moment. The irony in Crane’s story “The Open Boat” is that, in describing the situation of the correspondent, who has come to understand his small role or position in relation to nature through manmade objects like the life-boat, Crane continues to give human qualities to inhuman things. For example, the narrator calls nature a “she”. For both Crane and correspondent, nature is an old, unstoppable force whose workings are always beyond their grasp. Crane bases his beliefs of nature off of his own prior …show more content…

Before reaching Red Sammy’s restaurant the grandmother points out six gravestones in a field. Three adults, two kids, and one baby accounting for six family members. This demonstrates how O'Connor eventually paints the family’s demise much prior to meeting their final resting place. O'Connor states, “The Tower is shaped like a huge tombstone or a church” (O'Connor 209). Having depicted specific events and places prior to the family’s demise allows the reader to interpret the inevitable. Irony is established from the moment the reader moves beyond the title in “A Good Man is Hard to

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