Paul Berlin's Irony

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The short stories “Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?” by Tim O’Brien and “The Storyteller” by Saki, display irony throughout the read, that expose the characters to develop realization. Paul Berlin, in the beginning of “Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?” has fear of war, and states to us, readers, “Once they reached the sea, thing would be better… and they would be safe” (O’Brien 213). Irony then comes into play and contradicts Berlin’s beliefs of the sea causing the author, Tim O’Brien, to write, “But even when he smelled salt and heard the sea, he could not stop being afraid” (216). Irony grows to be the source of Paul’s realization that the sea will not keep him safe. Likewise to irony establishing character realization in “Where Have

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