Achebe and Devi both used irony to highlight an issue at the closing of their respective stories. In “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, the author used irony to show the disregard for the indigenous peoples and their customs by the District Commissioner and to emphasize the internal struggle of the main character, Okonkwo, as he tries to maintain his image of manliness with his actions. Mahasweti Devi closed the story “Breast-Giver” with ironic circumstances to explain the gratitude that should have been owed to Jashoda that she did not receive and the cause of her death by what had given so much to so many. The District Commissioner’s ironic disregard for the indigenous people and their customs can be seen on the last page of the story. The statement, “The resolute administrator in him gave way to the student of primitive customs,” (Achebe 1190) is an example of how little the British man thought about the customs of the Umuofians. He had not taken the time to learn the customs of the people he was in charge of colonizing before the incident occurred. The British were trying to colonize the country and the Commissioner thought that helping the natives, “would give the natives a poor opinion of him,” (Achebe 1190). He does not realize that most of the people in the tribe did not want to be colonized and their opinion of the District Commissioner was already poor. It is ironic that helping the tribesman take down Okonkwo’s body might have endeared him to the people and made colonizing them easier. Another example of irony used by Achebe is the suicide of Okonkwo. Throughout the entire story, Okonkwo is trying to display manly attributes. The story opens with his feelings about how his father was weak and he never wanted to be... ... middle of paper ... ...ray her in the end,” (Devi 1084). The breasts had provided for her family financially and raised her status as a woman in the society. In the end, the source of everything she had in life brought about her death. Irony was used by both authors in the two stories. Devi brought to light the lack of gratitude that should have been owed to her for all she did for others. It was also ironic that the breasts that gave her so much in life harbored the cause of her death. The irony used by Achebe was the weak end to a man who lived to be seen as strong and the lack of interaction between the colonizers and tribesmen that could have made the colonization easier. These e uses of irony brought both stories to an effective closing. Works Cited Simon, Peter, ed. The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Shorter Second Edition, Volume 2. W.W. Norton & Company, 2009. Print
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "dramatic irony (literature)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. .
...ionaries that Okonkwo had left and that he would take the missionaries to where Okonkwo was. Obierika led them to Okonkwo’s final resting place in the forest. “We are thrust from what is figured as an intimate, insider’s view of the Igbo life to a jarringly alien one.”(Carey Snyder Things Fall Apart Blooms literature).Okonkwo felt that the Igbo people were doomed because they would not fight against the Christians so Okonkwo Hung himself from a tree. The commissioner was writing a book called “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger(Achebe 209)” and that “One could almost write a whole chapter on him(Achebe 208)” meaning with what Okonkwo had done to the missionaries and against Christianity. Okonkwo and the missionaries both deserve part of the blame for the fall of the Igbo people and Obierika is very justified in placing blame on both of them.
In this story, Achebe defines societal standards as the basis for personal status. It is evident throughout the story as we see Okonkwo, a very strong and fierce character struggle to adapt to the new changes and technology the Missionaries had to offer. These changes were not just religious based, the Europeans were there to expand the village, but in turn change and take away what it was created upon. The people of Umuofia prided themselves in their founding traditions, soon these traditions were going to be considered impractical, and these same traditions that the people saw as i...
Throughout the whole short story “The Story of an Hour” the reader sees’ irony but the best usage of irony occurs toward the end of the story in the last few paragraphs. As the reader reads the story they notice that Mrs. Mallard’s husband Brently Mallard died in a railroad disaster. The reader also finds out that Mrs. Mallard has a heart trouble, and great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death. (157) There ar...
He was in great conflict with the ideas of the white men and the missionaries. Okonkwo saw that their beliefs had not only changed the daily life of the Ibo, but it also changed the people themselves: “He mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women” (Achebe 183). The author uses strong diction to compare the men before and after colonization. This quote also portrays Okonkwo’s opinion towards the cultural collision. He values strength and masculinity immensely because of his fear of appearing weak like his father Unoka. When he describes that the men of Umuofia changed to be soft like women, this shows how much he dishonors the Western ideas and how it has taken over the village. He made an attempt to get rid of the Western influence by urging the tribe to fight like men, but they refuse to. He was determined and still attempted to furthermore encourage the people of Umuofia to revolt against the new culture. He realizes that his attempts to return the village back to the way it was before were futile. He knew that Christianity was tearing his people apart, but knew he was incapable of making change to help his people. Okonkwo then starts to feel hopeless and abandoned by his clan, which causes him to commit suicide by hanging himself: “Obierika… turned suddenly to the District Commissioner and said ferociously: ‘That man was one of the greatest men
Irony make things appear to be what it is not. Flannery O’Connor and Zora Neale Hurston are two ironic authors in literature. O’Connor was a devout Roman Catholic, with a southern upbringing (Whitt); whereas “Hurston is a disciple of the greatest dead white European male, authors, a connoisseur of macho braggadocio, and a shamelessly conservative Republican who scorned victimism and leftist conformism (Sailer). Both O’Connor and Hurston use irony in their short stories; however, they use it in significantly similar ways.
Okonkwo is often described as being similar to characters in Greek tragedies. Okonkwo knew that the end of his clan was coming, and that they would do nothing to prevent it from happening. He took his life out of desperation. He had struggled his whole life to become a respected member of his community, and suddenly his world is turned upside down and changed forever because of an accident. Okonkwo sees that he is fighting a losing battle, so he quits. Suicide was one of the biggest offenses that could be committed against the earth, and Okonkwo?s own clansmen could not bury him. Okonkwo?s death symbolizes the end of patriarchy in Umuofia. The last page of the book is from the point of view of the white Commissioner, who notes that he wants to include a paragraph on Okonkwo?s life in his book entitled The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of Lower Niger. Okonkwo?s struggles, triumphs and defeats are all reduced to a paragraph, much like his culture and society will be reduced.
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.
In conclusion, many examples are given throughout the novel that exemplifies all three types of irony: situational, verbal, and dramatic. There are many more examples, like Bernard wanting attention and John’s suicide. His suicide can be an example of irony, with the reader hoping that John (the revolutionist) might succeed, but John taking his own life. Irony plays a huge role in the book, pointing out that no society can be perfect and that some laws are broken by the creators themselves.
In “The Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry, there are multiple examples of situational irony that has emotion. One example of situational irony is when Johnny is kidnapped by Bill and Sam, and he is supposed to be scared. Instead, Johnny likes being kidnapped because he does not have to go to
In the novel “Things Fall Apart” Achebe introduced two type of stories to his audience which one symbolizes women and the other men. The stories that has been told in the book about war, blood, violence, and killing refers to mankind stories while the
Irony can often be found in many literary works. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is masterfully written full of irony. The characters of the short story, Mrs. Mallard, Josephine, Richards, Mr. Brently Mallard, and the doctors all find their way into Chopin’s ironic twists. Chopin embodies various ironies in “The Story of an Hour” through representations of verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony.
There are so many examples of situational irony that is clear throughout these stories Mr. Mallard being dead, Mama finally realizes that Maggie deserves the quilts because she understands her heritage better than Dee, Mathilde finding out she worked her whole life for nothing, and when Mr. Graves tells Tessie that Eva draws with her husband's family, Tessie is angry. Dramatic irony is everywhere as well. Louise dies from the shock of seeing her husband who is supposed to be dead and when Dee never wanted anything to do with her heritage until somebody was impressed by it.
In the novel, Okonkwo was the epitome of manliness because of his athletic prowess and his position of power within the clan, emphasized on page 26 of Achebe’s work, “ “He was talking about Okonkwo, who had risen so suddenly from great poverty and misfortune to be one of the lords of
Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart to be an antithesis to much of European literature, and his characterization of Okonkwo as almost a tragic hero serves that purpose. Because Okonkwo has similarities to Oedipus and others, such as Thyestes or Hamlet, he shows Western readers that Africans and members of other marginalized cultures are not completely foreign. As a corollary, Okonkwo 's failures to meet some of the qualities of a tragic hero demonstrate the failure of the mainly Western archetype to represent universal standards, a main point for postcolonialist writers. However, just because Okonkwo is an inversion of the traditional tragic hero does not mean that the archetype cannot hold for cultures outside of Europe; instead, it merely means that archetypes can be modified to create more literary variety in the same way that novels written by Africans, Europeans, and other cultures introduce essential diversity into the literary