According to Treasure-net’s ironic statistics page, 17 people die every year from choking on lifesavers candy. This is extremely ironic as a candy called a lifesaver is going to be expected to save lives, not end them. This swap of expectations is known as situational irony, and this “situational irony” is extremely common. The idea of Irony being common in everyday life is confirmed by three short stories: Sherman Alexie’s “Because My Father Always Said He Was The Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ At Woodstock,” Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children,” and Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find.” Although all three short stories contain different characters …show more content…
Sherman Alexie’s short story has several instances of situational irony which add interest to his story. To begin Alexie describes Victor’s father protesting a war with violence. When someone is protesting a war, it is expected that the person is going to be both peaceful and fully against violence. In Alexie’s short story, the father is the exact opposite, beating up a National Guard private, and being generally violent as a protest to war. “In his hands my father holds a rifle above his head, captured in that moment just before he proceeded to beat the shit out of a national guard private lying prone on the ground. A fellow demonstrator holds a sign that is just barely visible over my father’s left shoulder. It reads make love not war” (Alexie 25). This quote really shows off irony in Alexie’s writing as the situation is not expected in the least. …show more content…
In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story, there are a handful of ironic situations which effectively add interest to his short story. The first instance is the arrival of the angel. Normally when an angel arrives it is believed that heavenly music, bright light, and generally heavenly things accompany it. Contrary to this, when the angel arrives in Marquez’s story it is accompanied by a stench of shellfish, and a stormy, gloomy day. “The light was so weak at noon it was hard for him to see what was moving and groaning in the rear of the courtyard. He had to go very close to see it was an old man, a very old man, lying face down in the mud, who, in spite of his efforts, couldn’t get up, impeded by his enormous wings” (Marquez 1). This text is a strong occurrence of irony, as the general expectation is thrown away, and the opposite is instituted. This angel’s arrival adds interest to the story as it gives background, and mood to the story. Another example of irony in Marquez’s story is the “wise” old woman. When an old woman is referred to as wise it is expected that she would be extremely intelligent, a smart thinker, and overall, wise. Oppositely the “wise” old woman is commonly proved wrong, comes up with bad ideas, and is overall not the smartest woman, contrary to what she is known for. “Against the judgment of the wise neighbor woman, for whom angels in those
In “Invitation to a Murder” by Josh Pachter, situational irony is used an extremity of times. The first example comes from the title of the story. Eleanor Abbott pre-planned for there to be 12 renowned men in the criminal justice system invited to witness the death of her husband! Once they were there, she planned to blame them on his death! This is ironic since these men are busy fighting murder, and here they are about to be blamed for one! The following example comes in when the men come over to the Abbott household.
Situational irony is used in both O’Henry’s “The Ransom of Red Chief” and “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant but the effect of the techniques on the tone of each story is very different. In O’Henry’s story, the protagonist, Red Chief, is being kidnapped by two criminals, Bill and Sam. There are many ironic events that occur in the story. For example, the reader expects Red Chief to want to go back home to his family but instead, he is having the time of his life. As hard as Bill tries, he cannot even send him home. Bill utters to Sam, “‘I showed him the road to Summit and kicked him about eight feet nearer there at one kick’” (6). This is comical because it is using a literary technique known as slapstick comedy. The reader can imagine Bill swinging his leg and kicking Red Chief all the way back to Summit. Another example of situational irony in the story is that the reader would expect that Red Chief to be scared but what is actually happening is that Bill is terrified. While speaking with Sam, Bill complains about Red chief yet again, “‘I’ve stood by you without batting an eye ...
An element of literature in The Interlopers is situational irony. Irony is the contrast between an actual outcome and what the reader or the characters expect. Irony is important to this story because a major family conflict would have ended, but an event occurred and changed that. Irony is in the interlopers when the wolves came and ate the men. When Georg says, “I will be your friend” it was major irony (Saki 309). The whole story the reader thought that the two men would surely kill each other when they met, but they made up. Also, when Ulrich said “Wolves” there is a turning point fueled by Irony (Saki 310).
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.
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.
Irony causes an interesting effect towards the reader causing them to expect the unexpected while conveying entertaining content. Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe is fully written with suspenseful and intriguing irony. The narrator could not have stated a better way to express his insanity than murdering the poor old man after self pro-claiming that he is sane. Edgar Allan Poe's technique to portray constant irony is substantially more effective than in any other short story because Poe created a “mad” man in Tell Tale Heart who considers himself “sane”, making the narrator himself ironic. Edgar Allan Poe presents verbal irony in an obvious way. During the story, the narrator attempts to prove to the readers that he is sane. Unfortunately,
For example, in the beginning of the story, Pete, Jesse’s cousin, was talking about marine life and how he rescued a beached dolphin, but Jesse hated Pete talking about dolphins. He “...tried to block out his cousin’s voice...” (Pg. 19) Later in the story, Pete’s lecture came in handy when Jesse rescued the beached dolphin. Another instance of irony is, that Jesse hated pep talks from people, but then was giving the dolphin pep talk in the end. He told the dolphin, “Bud, you’ve got to save yourself… Nobody going to do it for you. If you give up, you’re finished...” (Pg. 23) This pep talk he gave the dolphin made him realize he needs to do the same. Most ironic things happen when you least expect
Irony is used very often by Poe. Irony is when something occurs that is the exact opposite of how it should be or seem. Irony varies in that it may be displayed through someone’s actions or an ironic happening. An example of irony in someone’s action are in the Cask of Amontillado is when Montressor repeatedly seems concerned for Fortunato’s health, even though his real intentions are to kill him. It also may be considered ironic that Poe named the enemy of Monstressor, Fortunato. Being that Fortunato means fortunate or lucky in Italian, it is ironic that he is very unlucky in that he his buried alive in a wall.
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.
For situational irony I choose the novel or movie .”The Maze Runner.” The situational irony that happened in this story was when Alby and Minho try to examine a weird creature.They wanna bring it back to the glade where they live ,but the griever is actually alive and injuries Alby.Which it makes it difficult to go back to go to the glade.This is situational irony,because now they're trapped inside the maze with the griever with one injured person.
“Humor is everywhere in that there’s irony in just about anything a human does” said Bill Nye. People, on incident, create ironies every day, from simply wearing a watch when your wrist hurts, to printing paper about saving the environment. Three prime examples of the many ironies of life: “Because my father always said he was the only Indian who saw Jimi Hendrix play ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock”. Although many of our readings are immensely different in plot and setting, they all still include many forms of irony.
Throughout the historic course of literature, one story known as “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Cornell has incorporated specific types of irony for multiple differing and fundamental reasons. Situational irony is the first use of ironic elements that will be discussed in regards to the story. Situational irony is defined as “an incongruity that appears between the expectations of something to happen, and what actually happens instead ” (literarydevices.net). The story’s climax offers a unique twist to the plot as it includes an unexpected discovery, ultimately incorporating situational irony into the sequence of events. The story starts out with the introduction of the legendary hunter Bob Rainsford as he is shipwrecked and trapped on a deserted island. While staying on the island, Rainsford is introduced to the eccentric General Zaroff, who is a self proclaimed expert hunter as well. In short, the General turns out to be a sadistic psychopath who forces Rainsford into a game of “cat and mouse”, which causes Rainsford to fight for his life. This state of affair is considered to be situational irony because Zaroff defies the expectations of being a hunter to the audience. This is specifically shown in the text when Rainsford confronts General Zaroff in regards to what he is hunting:
Irony is most commonly used in dialogue to express sarcasm and humor, and throughout the book, the irony becomes a prominent aspect of Holden’s personality. Salinger utilizes ironic devices to provide depth to Holden’s character and emphasize his own instability, as he constantly contradicts himself. Irony is used differently throughout the story, and most importantly, it conveys Holden’s shortcomings, making him more relatable and realistic.
Tolman, Kelly. “Cask of Amontillado Irony.” The Cask of Amontillado. n.p., 21 May 2011. n.pag. Web. 6 Nov. 2011 .
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.