The Last Spin by Evan Hunt is a short story following the unfolding of a Russian Roulette game between two rival gang members to settle a dispute between the gangs. It critiques blind loyalty for its pointlessness, stupidity and its dangerous consequences. This is done through juxtaposing characterisation, dramatic and situational irony and a sad ending made even more bitter through heavy dialogue. Hunt shows his distaste for strong loyalty through the contrasting personalities of Tigo and Danny. The Last Spin focuses on characterisation through dialogue, fleshing Tigo and Danny both out past their loyalty to their respective gangs. The two are juxtapositions of each other in several ways and bring each other’s unique traits out. At the start …show more content…
Dramatic irony is used by having the reader understand the stakes of Russian Roulette much clearer than Tigo and Danny. The boys do fear the stakes of the game, shown by Danny’s fear after Tigo adds a second bullet. “Danny hesitated an instant. He did not want to pick up the gun.” (p.g, 6) However, they still choose to keep playing and become more and more confident in every empty chamber to the point where Tigo is worried neither of them will get shot, adding yet another bullet. Their disregard for the danger shown again by their decision on one last spin despite already agreeing to call it off, akin to the title. “The last spin,” Tigo said. “Come on, the last spin”. (p,g. 8) The effect of this dramatic irony frustrates the reader with the character’s disregard for life, creating tension and suspense. Hunt also employs situational irony in the story which similarly also highlights the stupidity of the gang conflict. The situational irony of the characters eagerly playing a game where one of them can die while becoming friends shows the level of their loyalty conveys a similar stupidity to the dramatic irony and makes the reader feel a level of sympathy for them and their oblivious innocence. Using forms of irony to toy with the reader’s emotions, Hunt imprints with the reader how ludicrous blind loyalty can
The Use of Irony to Empathize Men’s Idiocy Throughout the investigations in “Lamb to the Slaughter” and “Trifles,” the authors use irony to emphasize the men’s idiocy and arrogance and highlight women’s perceptiveness. The authors use dramatic irony to emphasize the men’s idiocy. One example of this is in Trifles. The women had just finished hiding evidence as the men walked in.
In almost the entirety of this play, dramatic irony is used to keep the readers on the edge of their seats. The chain of events that led to the two teens’ deaths certainly had the audience’s eyes rolling.
For example, “Without any pause, she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head” (4). From the beginning of the story the reader could infer that Mary is a pregnant lady who loves her husband but, in reality, Mary Maloney swings a leg of lamb to her husband’s head killing him. This type of irony is situational because no one would have expected a lovely woman who loves her husband very much to be the one to kill him. This adds suspense to the story because the reader is eager to see what happens after she kills her husband and is wondering if she gets
Situational irony, dramatic irony, and verbal irony are used in stories like “The Cask Of Amontillado”, and “The Story of an Hour” to express emotion, make a story more interesting, and give a true meaning to a story. Situational irony was used in the stories “The Story of an Hour”, “The Cask of Amontillado”, and “The Sniper” to add surprise and express the unexpected. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the wife, Mrs.Mallard, just received the news her husband died and she went into a room and stared out the window. When she did this the author said “ she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window” (Chopin 2). The situational irony in this is that we, as the readers, thought she would feel revitalized and ready to take on the world, but she dies on the next page.
Irony is vital to any play or story; it adds anxiety and tension for the readers to keep them alert and thirsting for more while reading. “Irony which is an important aspect of tragedy is used as a weapon” (Bhatia Page 1) in The Crucible. ”Irony usually involves a tension between the statement and the meaning, appearance and reality, aspiration and achievements” (Bhatia Page 1). Inclusive there were vast tense moments in the story. And in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller there is an abundant amount of dramatic irony seen throughout the Characters Motives, Behaviors, and Sworn Words.
Our attention bleeds deeper into the story. By the time he is done with the story he leaves his audience with bloody wounds and twisted thoughts. The author’s attitude reveals that an individual’s true self will affect the choices he makes. For example, when the crowd passed the dead body no one cared to comfort the dead man’s family.
An example of the irony would be, “My wife plays DEATH for 34 points, just as the room starts to shake” (Fish 5). This quote proves that the irony was the husband dying instead of the wife due to his scrabble chip. When he does not stop chewing on his Scrabble chip, it leads readers to believe that something bad could happen to him, especially when his cousin died due to his throat swelling up. Foreshadowing and irony were two literary devices that were prevalent in “Death by Scrabble” and helped readers interpret the ending of the
The novel “Long Way Down” by Jason Reynolds is filled with examples of irony that contribute to the story’s themes and impact. One example of irony in the book is the character Will’s decision to seek revenge for his brother’s murder. Despite the fact that Will’s brother Shawn was killed in a gang-related incident. This ironic twist in the plot reinforces the idea that cycles of violence and revenge do not truly solve anything, as they only perpetuate the same harmful patterns.
The relation between these two is strong as they both deal with similar events in their lives affecting them in virtually the same
Drawing from The Last of Us, the game presents players with a story that superfi-cially shows the fate of the world hanging in balance, but connects it with
"(Téllez, 3) This story symbolizes a dilemma, based on the decision between murder or reputation and pride. In conclusion, it allows additional access to the theme of this story without ruining the
People face many dilemmas in their life from, “oh I’m not going to get to on time if I take a shower.” Five minutes later on your way to work, “oh wait its Saturday,” to “what flavor of ice cream do I want.” Many of this can happen in both fiction or nonfiction and usually end in irony. Dilemmas come in different sizes, forms, and different times in life.
In this section, it is clear the all their problems regard their parents which creates a connection between the two. Up until this point the characters appear to be polar opposites, however this duologue clearly enhances their relationship furthermore enhancing the dramatic affect . Having complete opposites relate during the film creates a juxtaposition, thus creating tension and a loathing between the two characters. However, during the is duologue this contrast is fixed and finally the two can understand each other. The both share a myriad of similarities, but look only at appearance, they don’t truly understand that appearance does not define character.
In this short story it presents an example of situational irony when the Republican Sniper finds out that the man he killed was his brother. This is situational irony, because while he was fighting to kill the enemy sniper, it instead wasn't his enemy, and was actually one of the closest people in the Republican Snipers' life, and this is shown due to the author describing the remorse the Sniper felt. This irony is not just to catch the reader off guard but shows how in the heat and stress of battle, as mentioned later, causes impulsive decisions that in this case killed the relationship between men, friends, and in this case, brothers. Not only that but it causes the man to lose his motivation to continue fighting in the war, and to him, he likely lost
Situational and dramatic irony is effective and major techniques the writer has used to manipulate the audience’s emotions, and perspectives–it also enables the sharing of obscure and secretive moments with the reader. Irony first occurs when Louise’s husband passes away from a freaky railroad accident. At first, Louise experiences grief for a period of time–until she has an epiphany and celebrates his death–which was NOT what the audience intended.