Boundless “Fall of a City,” By Alden Nowlan and “Chief Joseph Surrenders,” A passage by Chief Joseph himself. As a kid growing up, I knew how it was to give up. I felt as if I was always one step behind everybody. In the story of, “Fall of a City,” by Alden Nowlan, Teddy seems to feel the same way. Always using his imagination because he couldn’t fit in in the real world. Young or old, people get discouraged and pushed down. As the chief of an Indian tribe, from “Chief Joseph Surrenders,” Chief Joseph is so weary and tired from fighting, he gets discouraged and gives up. This goes to show that wise or arrogant, all people have the same emotions. You see it everyday, people beat themselves down, just as others do the same thing to you. My concern is that people are going to be wired more to give up more easily, rather than to maintain their ground. Teddy is young and childish, while Chief …show more content…
If you have ever read these stories, you probably caught on that the tone of both of these stories is very depressing. They are both extremely committed to what they are doing, but continue to get beaten down physically and mentally. Teddy and Chief Joseph are both part of a ‘kingdom.’ In their kingdoms, they may be the “royalty” of them, but they both even doubt themselves so much that eventually, they both gave up in the end. Although, it was probably the best for them in the end, it was still emotional for the both of them. Notwithstanding, situational irony is used in both “Fall of a City,” by Alden Nowlan and “Chief Joseph Surrenders,” a passage by Chief Joseph, the effect has almost the same outcome. You never expected Teddy to destroy his city in the end of the story; and the General never expected Chief Joseph to surrender the way he did. This irony is used to baffle the readers by what Teddy did, but then used more in a personal way directed towards the General that Chief Joseph surrendered
The other will sleep in this very excellent bed. On guard, Rainsford.” . . . He had never slept in a better bed, Rainsford decided,” which clearly shows irony. Throughout the entire story, the general boasted about how he’s never lost this “game” and this game with Rainsford, he lost, at the cost of his life. Another good example of irony would be when the general reveals that he hunts humans; Rainsford replies that war “did not make me condone cold-blooded murder.”
His perspective in the chapters he narrates shows us he is a very emotional person and reacts out of instinct rather than processing things first. We also learn that he has a knack for perceiving things he doesn’t know for a fact are real. He also tends to refer to himself in the third person, which can be seen as his way of understanding what others think of him. The most important aspect of his character that we learn about is his tendency to let his inner emotions control his actions because he is unable to process them fully and is detached from reality. An example of this is when he burns down the barn to end the trip to bury his mother's body.
He exercised a mentality of being untouchable seen in the way he pushes the limits of his
Edgar Allan Poe creates horror and suspense in his use of irony -including verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony-in his short story “ The Tell-Tale Heart”. Verbal irony is when something that is said means the opposite of what is meant. Poe uses verbal irony when he states, “ I loved the old man.” Situational irony is similar. It is defined as when what happens is different from or even the opposite of what we expected.
According to Dictionary.com, Situational irony occurs when there is a difference when something is expected to happen than what actually happens. (2018, para. 1). During the storm, Calixta has an affair with Alcee, but the readers did not expect that to happen. Also, Calixta represents irony in "The Storm," because she has an affair on her husband with an ex-lover. Her society was not common for divorces or affairs.
Irony is the most powerful literary device used in the short story, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. First, a good example of irony in the story is “They were burdened with sashweights sand bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in.” (P,2 Line, 11-13) This quote is Ironic as it tells how this system was designed to hide beauty, yet beauty was still shown by the amount of restraints on the person. Second, another good example of irony is, “The spectacles were intended to make him not only half-blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.
Irony may appear in difference ways within literature. Irony changes our expectations of what might happen. It can create the unexpected twist at the end of a story or anecdote that gets people laughing or crying. Verbal irony is intended to be a humorous type of irony. Situational irony can be either funny or tragic.
When children are little, they are taught never to give up and persevere through tough times. But perseverance is one of the hardest life stills to learn. We can see this problem in main characters in many fiction novels. In Elie Wiesel’s Night and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the main characters of these pieces of literature want to pursue their hopes, but eventually the determination wanes. In Night, Elie was optimistic when he was first taken away by the Germans and believed he would eventually find the rest of his family, happy and healthy.
For instance, when the protagonist, Harrison escapes from jail and crashes the live ballerina broadcast Vonnegut uses situational irony. Once Harrison escapes, the reader develops a conclusion that Harrison will rebel when he says, “I am the Emperor!” When Harrison and his Empress, the ballerina “shifted their weights to their toes” the reader assumes Harrison will take over and over throw Diana Moon Glampers but, the Handicap General shoots them both dead. This is situational irony because it is the exact opposite of what is anticipated. With this scene Vonnegut is implying that equality is dangerous.
The use of irony helped move the plot along, and it made the story easy to read and follow along with. Irony helped show that in times of war, sides don’t exactly matter. You could be a patriot, but then be killed by your own friends, or you could be a loyalist and be killed at the hands of the British. During war, everyone must care for
The renowned author, Raymond Carver, utilizes dramatic and situational irony throughout his short stories, Cathedral, Neighbors, and They’re not your husband. Carver is well known for using different types of irony to allure the reader. In Cathedral, and They 're not your husband situational irony is amply evident. Situational irony is when the opposite of what is expected to happen, occurs. However, in Neighbors, dramatic irony is prevalent.
Federigo’s Falcon’s Irony Authors use irony to make their audience stop and think about what has just been said, excite the reader, build suspense, or to even emphasize the idea. There are three types of irony: Verbal, Situational, and Dramatic. In Federigo’s Falcon by Giovanni Boccaccio, all three types of irony are used in different ways throughout the story. For instance, a clear example of Situational Irony is at the end of short story.
One example of situational irony is first, the name “Fortunato” means “Fortunate” in Italian, but Fortunato is actually very unfortunate. Next, the word “cask” means “wine barrel,” but coffin also comes from the same word. So in other words, Fortunato believes he will reach a cask of wine, but in all actuality he will reach his coffin. Also, another great example of situational irony comes when Montresor has just dismembered Fortunato and exits the catacombs. Then, Montresor claims, “My heart grew sick-“(240).
The fact that the house continues to do its daily tasks without knowing the residents have perished is the overshadowing example of situational irony in the story. The fact that the house survived a nuclear fallout yet ends up being destroyed by a fire caused by a tree branch falling is a perfect example of situational irony in the story. Finally, the poem used by Ray Bradbury is ironic because it was one of Mrs. McClellan’s favorite poems and it happens to describe the present situation in the story. All of these examples of situational irony engage the reader in a very unique
Irony is often used in literature to illustrate certain situations to the audience. In some pieces of literature that might be pointing out an unjust system, in others that might be to add a comedic effect, but whatever situation the author wants to illustrate, irony is very beneficial. Through small and witty, one-liners, or a bigger dramatic irony situation contrasting two very different situations, irony can be very beneficial for the reader to understand the story. Both “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins have a corrupt dystopian society. Through the use of irony, the author can portray the corruptness to the audience.