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Dramatic irony essay
Dramatic irony literary critique
Use of irony in short stories
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The short story, “The Ransom of Red Chief”, by O. Henry, depicts the unsuccessful capture of a shrewd young boy. In 1907, in the town called Summit, the red-chief is captured by two criminals. This hilarious capture portrays the theme of true justice, and O. Henry uses dramatic irony to relay this theme. In the year 1910, O. Henry a dramatic writer known for his works of satire and irony wrote an ironic tale of a ransom. The short story titled, “The Ransom of Red Chief” tells the tale of a shrewd young lad who diversified the ordinary nature of kidnappings. Red Chief as he calls himself, abused his kidnapers terribly. Therefore, the kidnappers became terrified of their captive. In the end, the kidnappers pay his father to take him back home.
Stuhlmiller, Matthew. “Tales of Redwall by Brian Jacques.” Suite101.com. n.p. 28 Jun. 2010. Web. 24
Virtue is defined as a morally good and desirable quality in a person. This leads us to wonder: Do you have to actively choose to be virtuous in your lifestyle, or is avoiding evil enough to be considered as a virtuous being? Did Ransom display active virtue in Out Of The Silent Planet? Must a person be righteous to obtain virtue? Though some take the side saying that virtue is an active choice, others disagree by stating that avoiding evil is sufficient for becoming virtuous. A person must actively choose to be virtuous because humans were not born virtuous, virtue is an attribute, and the trait must be learned.
Sherman Alexie writes in his story, What You Pawn I Will Redeem about a homeless Salish Indian named Jackson Jackson. Alexie takes readers on Jackson’s journey to acquire enough money to purchase back his grandmother’s stolen powwow regalia. Throughout the story, Jackson’s relationships with other charters ultimately define his own character. Alexie, a well know Native American author tells an all too common tale of poverty and substance abuse in the Native American community through his character Jackson. The major character flaw of Jackson is his kindness, which ultimately becomes his greatest asset when fate allows him to purchase back his grandmother’s powwow regalia from a pawn broker for only five dollars.
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. Sculley Bradley, Richard Beatty, and E. Hudson Long Eds. New York: W.W. Norton, 1962.
Charles Bukowski is a fascinating writer, skilled with a certain vernacular and vocabulary that he incorporates into his works. His speech and writing style have a lot to do with the way a reader is compelled to read on. Bukowski’s short stories are uniquely captivating, each in their own special way. His story, Ransom, was especially appealing. This story follows Marty and Kell in their attempt to kidnap a rich man’s kid for two million dollars. As simple as the story seems, Ransom makes a bold statement on the quality of life in today’s American society and conversely debunks the statement almost immediately. The story is very short, only a few pages, but smoothly incorporates a message about society.
“Just then, I heard a heavy sound and a deep breath from Bill. A rock the size of an egg had hit him just behind his left ear.” (pg 3/3)This story is about kidnappers that need a little extra cash for an illegal land deal. So, they decided to kidnap a boy and send a ransom note, but their little plan gets turned back on them. O. Henry's short story, ‘The Ransom of Red Chief,' is a low-level comedy that uses comic situations and hyperboles to convey the idea that life will not always give you the easy way out.
The plot of the short story takes place in the future, in which three gifted individuals known as “precogs” or “precognitives” can view the future and prevent an act of murder from taking place. The precogs’ prediction allows a specially trained group of agents from the Precrime unit, a policing organization, to apprehend the future criminal, effectively stopping the criminal act (Landrith). In the short story the founder and the commissioner of the Precrime unit, John Anderton, experiences the other end of the spectrum as a criminal when he is suddenly accused of a future murder. He is allegedly going to kill an individual by the name of Leopold Kaplan, the General of the Army of the Federated Westbloc Alliance, an aboli...
“The Vendetta” by Guy de Maupassant is not a short story because it does not meet the criteria that we discussed in class as follows. It does not emphasize subtle characterization, imply rather than state facts, emphasize revelation rather than effect, however it does contain dramatic irony throughout the story.
The book “The Red Badge of Courage “ is written in Third Person Limited Omniscient. We see the action through the eyes of just on one character, this case Henry Fleming.Though Henry is not the narrator of the story,we are inside Henry’s...
Have you ever been in a situation and believed you know the end result of the situation? However, the complete opposite of what you believed would happen occurs instead. This technique of writing is called the use of situational and dramatic irony. This writing style is used both today and in the medieval periods by many writers. One story in the medieval times that used this style of writing is The Canterbury Tales. The Author Geoffrey Chaucer uses The Canterbury Tales to show many examples of situational and dramatic irony throughout the tales of "The Pardoner", "The Knight", and "The Miller's".
In “Federigo’s Falcon” by Boccaccio and “The Pardoner’s Tale” by Chaucer the theme is sacrifice although each sacrifice is made for very different reasons. Both stories were told in the 1300s when the plague hit. There were many deaths involved in the plague which leads to many deaths in the stories. Sacrifice may cause death. There is a lot of irony in the sacrifices.
The Pardoner was an ironic figure. He preached about greed and money, because he wanted money. He didn’t care about his sins his sole purpose was to get money. In the medieval times it was hard, and people became desperate and lost hope. In the Pardoner’s journey he tells about three drunken brothers. He tells how the three brothers lust after wealth. The three brothers are tied together and said to protect one another. Irony doesn’t escape these brothers. They turn against each other after they said they would protect each other, they are looking a way to kill death, and death was closer than they thought.
Now, this boy’s name is Johnny (he later names himself Red Chief) and he has more fun being kidnapped than any ordinary boy would have. In this short story, titled “Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry, two con-artists, named Bill and Sam, have the great idea of kidnapping Johnny, who turns out to be more trouble than he is worth.
Jimmy said “Bravery’s a treasure in a lonesome place.” Since the society is filled with boredom, fear and insecurity, the presence of a young man with the courage to kill his father becomes an example of a hero. Synge includes this to demonstrate the readiness of desperate places in the western world like the county of Mayo to accept murderers under certain conditions as an act of heroism. At the beginni...
Carlton, Peter J. "The Mitigated Truth: Tom Jones's Double Heroism." Studies in the Novel XIX, no. 4 (Winter 1987) : 397-409.