Use Of Situational Irony In Dave Barry's 'Although Beer'

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“So you’re about to start driving! How exciting! I’m going to kill myself” (Barry 1). This is a quote from “A Floriduh driver’s guide for my teen with a learner’s permit” in Dave Barry's book Live Right and Find Happiness (Although Beer is much Faster). In the excerpt of his book he is writing to his daughter who is about to start driving how, “Just because the State of Florida thinks you can drive a car, doesn't mean you can actually drive a car.”(Barry1) Barry constantly uses hyperbole and situational irony when writing to his daughter to tell his daughter and the audience that just because others think someone can do something, does not always mean that they actually can or should.

In Dave Barry’s book the excerpt “A Floriduh driver’s …show more content…

A good example of this element is in paragraph two which there is a conversation between a DMV officer and a test taker with the DMV officer telling the test taker to, “Ok, make a left turn here.” Then the test taker responds, “Whoops.” Then the DMV officer writes something on down and the test taker asks the officer, “Does that mean I failed the test?” and with the DMV officer responding, “Nah, she’s getting back up. You just clipped her.” This is an example of situational irony, as that is not what the audience expects the DMV officer to say, as when the test taker says, “Whoops.” the audience does not know why the test taker said that, and getting such a calmed responds to hitting something is shocking. This is meant to make the audience chuckle, as anyone who has taken the drivers test knows that hitting anyone while driving means that you have failed the test. Later in the story there is a “Reality-Based” Florida Driver’s Q&A that Dave Barry writes he has prepared, but the thing is that every answer is ridiculous and would never be actually said by anyone who can drive. For example the person asking the question asks, “I have noticed that some roads have more than one lane, What is the purpose of the extra lanes?” and the person answering these question responds, “To provide a place for you to swerve into while texting.” This is the first question in the “Reality-Based” …show more content…

This is said in a way at the beginning of the excerpt, “Just because the State of Florida thinks you can drive a car, doesn't mean you can actually drive a car.” (Barry 1) This was used to base off the theme, as the rest of the letter is just Dave Barry telling his daughter about ridiculous situations and how some people should not have been given a driver's license. Another example would be on paragraph four, “ He was a perfectly nice person, but he basically had the same level of visual acuity as a corn dog.”(Barry 4) This is said in a very comedic way, but it still shows that even though the man was a nice person did not mean he should have been driving. Another thing that has to be accounted for is lack of good judgement, but that leads into the thesis for this letter. Just because others think someone can do something, does not always mean that they actually can or should we have to taken into account consequences and who or what is driving us to make those

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