According to Buzzfeed.com, Barry Manilow once sang a song called “I write my own songs”, but he didn’t even write the song himself. Many people would be surprised by this fact, and rightly so because it is ironic. Irony is all around if one looks for it during daily life. Irony adds an exciting factor into everyday life, and that is why it is included in Sherman Alexie’s “Because My Father Always Said He Was The Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play “The Star-Spangled Banner” At Woodstock, Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale For Children”. Since stories are always more interesting when the unexpected happens, all three authors of the stories have included irony in their writings. Sherman Alexie’s contains multiple instances of irony throughout the story. …show more content…
For example, O’Connor employs irony when he gives the little girl the name of June Star. With a name like June Star, readers would expect that she is a nice sweet little girl, but this is not true. Instead, June Star is a bratty and rude little girl with no manners. For example, she says rudely to her grandmother, “She wouldn’t stay at home to be queen for a day” (O’Connor 1). This point illustrates June Star’s lack of manners and her rude nature, and that is a reversal of what is expected of a girl with the name of June Star. Next, with a title like, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, one would expect that the family would encounter a good man. Contrary to one’s assumptions, the family runs into a wicked man, a criminal. While speaking with a restaurant owner, the grandmother says, “People are certainly not nice like they used to be” (O’Connor 4). The title of the story would lead one to believe that the family would perhaps encounter a good man or person on their trip, but ironically they come face-to-face with a
For example, in the beginning of the story, the narrator starts by talking about Mrs. Freeman. “Besides the neutral expressions that she wore when she was alone, Mrs. Freeman had two others, forward and reverse, that she used for all her human dealings” (433). The irony in this first line is that she is a “Freeman,” yet only has three different expressions. Another example of an irony that is easily noticeable is when Mrs. Hopewell considered Manley Pointer as “good country people.” “He was just good country people, you know” (441). The irony in this line is that in the end, Manley Pointer, whom is supposedly is “good country people,” ends up being a thief who steals Hulga’s prosthetic leg and runs and not only steals, but admits that he is not a Christian, making the line, “good country people,” a dramatic irony. However, one of the most ironic characters in the story is Hulga herself as she understands little of herself, regardless of the high education she holds in philosophy. For example, Hulga imagines that Pointer is easily seduced. “During the night she had imagined that she seduced him” (442). Yet, when they kissed, she was the one who was seduced and having the “extra surge of adrenaline… that enables one to carry a packed trunk out of a burning house…”
Like salt and pepper to beef, irony adds “flavor” to some of the greatest works of literature. No matter if readers look at old pieces of work like Romeo and Juliet or more modern novels like To Kill a Mockingbird, irony’s presence serve as the soul fuel that pushes stories forward. By definition, irony occurs when writers of books, plays, or movies destine for one event or choice to occur when the audiences expects the opposite; like Tom Robinson being found guilty after all evidences point other ways in To Kill a Mockingbird. These unique plot twists add mystery and enjoyability to hundreds of books. From the very beginning of The Chosen, a novel written by Chaim Potok, to the very end, irony’s presences does not leave the reader at any
The purpose of this irony is to shock the reader, since ironic things are by definition unexpected, it works well as a twist in the story.
What is irony? Irony is a figure of speech in which the intended meaning is actually the opposite of what is expressed by the words the author used. This technique is used to ridicule or mock a particular subject by expressing laudatory remarks, but implying contempt and denigration. There are several examples of irony in the novel _All_Quiet_on_the_Western_Front_ by Erich Maria Remarque, a realistic, yet fabricated account of a soldier's experience in an international war. The lighthearted irony quickly transitions into dark satire with the use of dramatic irony, the setting, and situational irony to mock the glorification of war and introduce reality.
Dramatic Irony is when an author allows the reader to know more than his/her characters in the story. This technique is used by the authors to add suspense to their literature. Edgar Allen Poe created many suspenseful stories using dramatic irony for the purpose of creating themes about human nature. In the short story “The Cask Of Amontillado,” Edgar Allen Poe uses dramatic irony to develop the theme that one should be careful about insulting another because he/she will seek revenge.
The short story “Good Country People,” uses irony in many ways. But the clear use of irony is portrayed in the story through O’Connors use of character names. The use of irony is presented when characters names contradict what the character represents. In “Good Country People,” O’Connor uses these names to figuratively and literally describe the four main character’s and their flaws.
Irony is when what is said is different than, what appears to be real. A media that utilizes irony is “The Hunger Games when Prim Rose got picked to participate in the game even though Katniss' name was in the draw more. Irony is not only shown in movies bit, in Television shows and stories as well. “The Possibility of Evil,” “The Skating Party” and “The Lottery” are three short-stories that show irony. “The Possibility of Evil” is about a 71-year-old woman, living in a small town, growing beautiful roses and she spends her days trying to the town of evil. “The Skating Party” is about someone's first love and how they lost them. ”The Lottery” is about a tradition in a small village that everyone, but one person wants to give up. The short-stories
“The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.” -Robert A. Heinlein. In the short story, “The Possibility of Evil”, the author Shirley Jackson uses irony to develop the traits of the protagonist, Miss Strangeworth, in her small hometown. Throughout the story, there are many examples of irony as Miss Strangeworth goes through her normal day. Irony is an engaging literary device used by authors to expose underlying intentions which become critical to the development of the plot.
In both A Streetcar Named Desire and Hamlet, Tennessee Williams and William Shakespeare, respectively, demonstrate their abilities to create engaging plays which work on several levels in order to produce the desired effect. One of the most important characteristics of these plays is the playwrights' success in using their words to create the worlds surrounding their works. Both Shakespeare and Williams effectively use irony in the aforementioned plays, both in the plot and with specific symbolism, to create mildly existential environments where effective irony is a confirmation of fate and justice. Immediately apparent to the reader upon completion of these two works is the glaring appearance of irony in the plays' plots. For example, in A Streetcar Named Desire, a great deal of dramatic irony is created when the audience is made aware of details that characters are ignorant to.
Irony is the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning. This rhetorical device is often used many times in literature and a very significant device. One example of irony occurs at the end. In the final chapter, was setting the jungle into fire, in order to smoke Ralph out. The fire, at the beginning of the book, was used for two things: it enabled the kids from signal a ship for a rescue, it helped cook meat, and it helped them keep warm.
Many authors use irony as a way of questioning the reader or emphasizing a central idea. A literary device, such as irony, can only be made simple with the help of examples. Irony can help a reader to better understand certain parts of a novel. F. Scott Fitzgerald helps the reader to recognize and understand his use of irony by giving key examples throughout The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s lush parties, Myrtle’s death, Gatsby’s death, and the title of the novel to demonstrate how irony plays a key role in the development of the plot.
In the story “Love in L.A” written by Dagoberto Gilb, the main character Jake is living his life as a lie. Jake is daydreaming about a better car and life when he causes an accident on the L.A. freeway. Instead of Jake driving away, he decides to face the issue and realizes the person he hit is a beautiful young woman. From there Jake begins to tell lies to impress the women but, the truth was, Jake didn’t have a steady occupation or insurance and his fear of the unknown kept him untruthful. In the fiction story “Love in L.A.”, irony is used because, although Jake dreamed about a better life he wasn’t willing to do anything to change his current life, as well as make better decisions.
The title of the story represents irony when the true essence of the title is completely different from what the reader might think it to be.
One example of dramatic irony is when Oedipus is looking for the killer of the king Laius-his father. The irony here is that he is looking for himself because he is the murder of his father. Oedipus knows that he killed someone, but what he does not know is that it was Laius, the one he murder. Oedipus wants to punish the person who killed Laius, but we, the audience know that Oedipus was the one who killed Laius. Also Oedipus married Jocasta without knowing that she is his mother. We, the audience knew that he was Jocasta's son, but he was unaware of that.
Irony is a useful device for giving stories many unexpected twists and turns. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," irony is used as an effective literary device. Situational irony is used to show the reader that what is expected to happen sometimes doesn't. Dramatic irony is used to clue the reader in on something that is happening that the characters in the story do not know about. Irony is used throughout Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" through the use of situational irony and the use of dramatic irony.