Theme Of Irony In The Eyes Have It

When writing short stories authors can use irony as a reference to interpret and support parts of the work. The short story “The Eyes Have It” by Philip K. Dick is about a man who finds a book on the bus and interprets the idioms with in the book literally, which leads him to believe he has discovered another life form among earth. The author wrote this piece using irony through word play as a literary device. By taking something that is a normality in society, and twisting the words to be literal, the author displays that the words and phrases that are just supposed to commonly known ironically do not make any sense. “The Eyes Have It” concludes with the notion that the English vocabulary once ultimately registering it, can be quite strange.

Irony is used by New Criticism as a literary device to give the literature a sense of complexity and deviation. As seen in Texts and Contexts, one of the main characteristics that instills effective work in New Criticism is the ability to be complex, even when seeming simple (Lynn 55). In New Criticism, irony is used as a figure of speech where the speaker 's implication is partially said and partially not said, almost making the reading subjective. The two statements that the speaker have said, and not said are usually in contrast of eachother. New Criticism as a whole emphasizes understanding the text

Dick was a science fiction writer, publishing stories from the 1950’s to the 1980’s. “The Eyes Have It” is a short story written about a man finding a book while sitting on the bus on his way back home. When picking up the book a reading it, he concludes that he has discovered the documents of another life form on earth. Once understanding his discoverment he is unsure what to do. The book is full of idioms and metaphors that he takes literally, and is astonished by what are within the pages. Toward the end of the story, the man decided that he has had enough and slams the book shut, no longer wanting any part of