Situational Irony In 'The Ransom Of Redchief'

Situational irony is a noun meaning “an outcome that turns out to be very different from what was expected, the difference between what is expected to happen and what actually does” (Dictionary.com). Many events that contain situational irony are present in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. This book is a story narrated by Death about a girl named Liesel and her experiences during World War II. She is givin up by her mother to live with Hans and Rosa Hubermann and she eventually has a wonderful life in her new home. She loves to spend time with her best friend Rudy Steiner and she even becomes friends with the Jewish man hiding in her basement, Max. The Book Thief is a complicated story showing how some events can be unexpected, but can end up being good in the end. To show this, Markus Zusak uses situational irony first when a Jewish man shows up at the Hubermann’s door, again when Death is actually caring and kind, and finally when a basement that was not supposed to be safe actually saved Liesel 's life.

Situational irony is an unexpected plot twist in the story which is used by authors to create surprise and feelings. Many authors use this device such as O.Henry in “The Ransom of Red chief” a humorous story and Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace,” a story that creates sympathy in the reader.

In “The Interlopers” and “The Necklace,” the irony is situational. The way it is situational is when the story ends something unexpected happening, like in “The Interlopers” how wolves came instead of their men, and in “The necklace” when Monsieur Loisel and Madame Loisel spent 10 years to pay off a necklace that cost 36,000 francs when the original cost only 500. In these 2 stories, it shows that irony leaves the readers wanting more, and it gives us a little bit of a surprise.

The movie and the story “The ransom of Red Chief” is alike in many ways. It is also different. In the storybook and the movie the kidnappers need 2,000 dollars. So they set off to find Johnny. Also in the movie and story the kidnappers’ names were Bill and Sam. Red Chief gave them both nicknames which were Old Hank and Snake Eye. Bill’s name was Old Hank and Sam’s name was Snake Eye, the spy. The kidnappers had to pay Johnny’s father 250 dollars, in both the movie and in the book. Another Similarity is Bill had to ride little Johnny 90 miles, while Sam goes into town.

In the movie Ransom of Red Chief there were some similarities in the story. In the movie, Bill and Red Chief played together. The game they played was called “Black Scout”. Bill tried to take Red Chief home. Red Chief had followed Bill back because he didn’t want to go home. Red Chief’s dad wanted Bill and Sam to pay him $250 to return Red Chief home.

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. Dramatic irony is usually an over the top, tragic form of irony. Both Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” are great examples of an ironic situation. Every expresses the common theme in their own way. Although both of these literally pieces provide us with the theme of irony, Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" gives the reader a sense of suspense with the irony that proves to be more effective.

When someone mentions a kidnapping, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Something scary, a nerve wracking experience… A fun time playing games and camping out in the wild? O. Henry describes a story about two older men in need for money that kidnap the son of one of the richest men from around in return for two thousand dollars. However, this kidnapping is nothing what they expected it to be. “The kid was a freckle-face boy of ten, with bright red hair, and Bill and me figured that Ebenezer would melt down for a ransom of the thousand dollars in a flash.” When they kidnap the boy, he does not want to go home because “[he does not] have any fun

In the short story “Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry, it used differences in the point of views of the characters to create dramatic irony by the characters Sam and Bill believing that the father will pay to get the son back, yet we can tell from the child 's actions that the father won’t pay that amount, so the father ends up getting paid to get the son back, which was humorous to us but not to the actual characters. An example from the text to support my claim is from page 25,” That boy had Bill terrorized from the start.” This shows that even though Bill was the kidnapper the kid was torturing him. This explains how from the beginning this child was too horrible for anyone to want to handle. We also know that dad, who spent most time with

The story and the movie “The Ransom of Red Chief” have a bunch of differences. In the movie, Sam tells a random kid to send a letter to Mr. Dorset. But in the story, Sam took the letter to the post office and a mail man took it to Mr. Dorset. Another difference is that in the story, the kidnappers offered Johnny Dorset some candy and kidnapped him. But in the movie, the kidnappers didn’t offer him candy and just put him in a trunk.

Kate Chopin used situational and dramatic irony in order to buy some mystery and it can leaves you thinking at the end. Situational irony is when the opposite of what you expect happend.The other irony Kate Chopin uses is Dramatic wich means when the audience/reader knows something that a character doesnt.One type of situational irony that louise was happy when she found out that her husband was dead.This is situational irony because most woman would be sad.In the text it states, “She said it over and over underneath her breath:Free,free,free!This shows that my claim was situational irony and my claim because i explained why it includes the type of irony and the evidence supports it because that's how she felt “Free”.

The situational irony in “The Ransom of Red Chief”, by O. Henry, implies a humorous effect on the reader. One example in the story, is the boy enjoys being kidnapped, and ends up torturing Bill. Getting the boy to the cave at first was hard for the criminals, but once the boy got there, he started having fun. He loved camping out and pretending they were Indian chiefs. “‘Red Chief,’ says I to the kid, ‘would you like to go home?’ ‘Aw, what for?’ Says he, ‘I don’t have any fun at home. I hate to go to school. I like to camp out. You won’t take me back home again, snake eye, will you?’”(41). The kid also loved to make Bill miserable. He hops on his back like Bill is a horse, and jumps on him when he is sitting down. If the kid could stay at that cave with them for the rest of his life, he easily would.

The irony in both the short stories The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe and The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry is used to create contrast between the route the reader thinks the story will go down, or the route that seems more obvious to the reader, and the reality presented, while adding touches of humor and foreshadowing. The irony in The Cask of Amontillado adds a dark layer of humor that tells the reader about how ego can get in the way of common sense, and foreshadows to the gruesome end. Montresor is practically a master at using reverse psychology, an example of verbal irony, to manipulate others into doing what he wants. The only time Montresor ever has to use physical force on Fortunato is at the very end, when he is chaining him up. Fortunato begs to stay in the

There are two different ways to develop tone. In the fictional story, “The Ransom of Red Chief,” by O. Henry, the use of irony helps form the tone to be humorous. Many writers use irony in different ways as to what it means, the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect. Therefore, creating either the suspense or humorous tone it develops.

Surprise is the feeling of shock that arises when something unexpected happens. Situational irony uses this feeling to its advantage and many writers use it in their stories to provide a plot twist; something that the audience would have never normally expected. When situational irony is used, it not only provides a feeling of shock but also another feeling to go along with it. For instance, in the short story “The Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry, the feeling of shock is accompanied by laughter because the plot twist is quite humorous. Another example would be in the story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, the twist involves a sense of pity for the main heroine. By examining these two short stories, it is evident that

Surprise, something that authors can use to their advantage to fill the reader with emotion. This is called situational irony. this can create a sense of mixed emotion using situational irony. Situational irony is when in the plot, there is an unexpected twist. Examine the two stories; “Ransom Of Redchief” by O. Henry, and “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupasset, both authors use situational irony to create an unexpected twist. By looking at both of these stories, we can imply that authors can adopt situational irony to surprise the reader.