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Morality in literature
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An adorable little boy in corduroys or a tough, spiked hair, leather wearing seventeen year old, who would you spend the day with? Just by my thinking, I can already suspect you will choose the adorable little boy due to his image. But do you know how that little boy acts? Sometimes a person does not seem what they look like. You have to look deep down to find out who they really are.
In a short story, named “Charles” by Shirley Jackson, an adorable little boy in corduroys named Laurie is off to school, but runs into someone. There is a boy named Charles, who is a mischievous kid in his kindergarten class. Charles hits, lies, curses, and causes a distraction. How incredibly impolite and what's more of the surprise that this boy is actually Laurie. Laurie used a make-believe person to cover up for his wrongdoings, instead of telling his mother and father the truth. Shirley Jackson used irony to make the readers believe Laurie until the ending lines, “Charles?" she said. “ We don't have any Charles in the kindergarten.”
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Ware. T.J. is known to be unbehaved and does not strive to do any classwork. He is the tough, spiked hair, leather wearing seventeen-year-old boy, who was also one of the options I gave you in the introduction. He is disliked and cringed by teachers if even seen on their classroom list. During his senior year of High School, he decides to join an after-school program named ACE. ACE is a program designed for students to get involved within their communities. In the beginning of this program, T.J. was very quiet, but getting to know the program more made him enjoy the activities. T.J. soon started to become a leader within this program. T.J. now liked the program and began setting records and improving his community in a variety of
In addition to symbolism, Walls also applies irony to her memoir. One example of irony found in almost every chapter, is when the Walls children are forced to take on traditional adult roles. When Jeannette’s father arrives home one night with a bloody gash on his right arm, Jeannette becomes a temporary nurse and sews “...two dark, slightly sloppy stitches…” in her father’s arm to stop the bleeding (Walls 170). Rex encourages his daughter to forgo the fact that she is a child and complete the job a trained professional would normally do. Therefore, Jeannette’s persistence to help in times of need shone through her fear of the situation. Another example of irony in The Glass Castle is when the children, specifically Jeannette and Brian, dig
“Irony trumps everything”. Thomas C. Foster made this argument in “How to Read Literature like a Professor”, explaining that when an author uses irony in their literary work, standard conventions on interpreting themes are temporarily disregarded (Foster 252). This effect on the reader allows for a different interpretation of the text to occur because the novel's events are contradictory to what one expects. The proficient use of irony in the novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood to show the inner desires of Offred, Serena Joy, and the Commander.
In 1983, author Margaret Atwood published the short story Happy Ending. It is written in third person swapping from limited to omniscient, though ultimately being told directly toward the reader finishing off with second person and sentences talking directly to the reader mixed in along the way. The story consists of letters going from A to F, with every letter telling of some scenario that takes place involving the only five characters: John, Mary, Madge, James and Fred. Story A holds the typical boy meets girl, falls in love, marry and live happily ever after until death. With this familiar story, it is granted the title Happy Ending and becomes the symbol that the rest of the story will build off of.
Like salt and pepper to beef, irony adds “flavor” to some of the greatest works of literature. No matter if readers look at old pieces of work like Romeo and Juliet or more modern novels like To Kill a Mockingbird, irony’s presence serve as the soul fuel that pushes stories forward. By definition, irony occurs when writers of books, plays, or movies destine for one event or choice to occur when the audiences expects the opposite; like Tom Robinson being found guilty after all evidences point other ways in To Kill a Mockingbird. These unique plot twists add mystery and enjoyability to hundreds of books. From the very beginning of The Chosen, a novel written by Chaim Potok, to the very end, irony’s presences does not leave the reader at any
Throughout the historic course of literature, one story known as “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Cornell has incorporated specific types of irony for multiple differing and fundamental reasons. Situational irony is the first use of ironic elements that will be discussed in regards to the story. Situational irony is defined as “an incongruity that appears between the expectations of something to happen, and what actually happens instead ” (literarydevices.net). The story’s climax offers a unique twist to the plot as it includes an unexpected discovery, ultimately incorporating situational irony into the sequence of events. The story starts out with the introduction of the legendary hunter Bob Rainsford as he is shipwrecked and trapped on a deserted island. While staying on the island, Rainsford is introduced to the eccentric General Zaroff, who is a self proclaimed expert hunter as well. In short, the General turns out to be a sadistic psychopath who forces Rainsford into a game of “cat and mouse”, which causes Rainsford to fight for his life. This state of affair is considered to be situational irony because Zaroff defies the expectations of being a hunter to the audience. This is specifically shown in the text when Rainsford confronts General Zaroff in regards to what he is hunting:
William Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men is novel that explores the political society and its influences. Like several politicians in modern society, several characters have qualities that seem unsuitable to the impression that have made. These ironies in All the King’s Men reveal how the characters have flaws, which can result in critical consequences. Jack Burden, Adam Stanton, Judge Irwin and Willie Stark are characters that with ironic traits.
In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Liesel Meminger, an orphaned little girl living in Nazi Germany, evolves partly through her numerous literary thefts. At her younger brother’s gravesite, she steals her first book, The Grave Digger’s Handbook, which teaches her not only the method to physically bury her brother, but also lets her emotionally bury him and move on. The theft of her next book, The Shoulder Shrug, from a book burning marks the start of Liesel’s awareness and resistance to the Nazi regime. As a story with a Jewish protagonist “who [is] tired of letting life pass him by – what he refer[s] to as the shrugging of the shoulders to the problems and pleasures of a person’s time on earth,” this novel prepares her both for resisting the
Short stories usually convey a theme message, a statement which motivates the reader to be a more moral person. In order for the reader to understand this life lesson, authors implant different literary devices such as foreshadowing and conflict into their stories. Foreshadowing is the use of clues to suggest events that may occur later in the story, and conflict is when there is a struggle between two opposing forces. In Charles by Shirley Jackson and The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov, the authors use foreshadowing and conflict to enhance the story's ultimate meaning and to keep readers absorbed in the story.
In the story "Antaeus," by Borden Deal, the main character T.J has three capabilities that make him different from his friends. First of all, T.J. is a very intelligent boy. His new city companions did not maintain the wisdom T.J. has about the world and how to deal with people around. T. J. is also a receptive boy, a soft-spoken person who feels an attachment to the land. Finally, T.J. is a tenacious boy who sticks to his plans once he starts it and who would reject to the idea about destroying what he has created.
In junior high some kids would call me names, but that was it. Verbal abuse is all that I have to deal with on occasion. This is nothing compared to the things that Jodee endured through her years of school. The story begins with Jodee’s description of how she was victimized in a 4th grade Catholic grammar school, coming to the defense of deaf children that were being treated cruelly. She supplied the school officials with names and was labeled a “tattletale.”
In the novel, The Stranger, the author, Albert Camus, creates a world of ironic dynamics between characters, while the non-conformist protagonist, Meursault, is tasked to live in the same world aware of said dynamics. Camus introduces the readers to characters like Raymond Sintes and old Salamano, who live these ironic dynamics to a great extent. They both physically punish their problems: for Raymond it is his ungrateful-cheating prostitute, and for Salamano, his dilapidated canine. Despite their apparent distaste and hatred for them, once they lose them, they seem to develop a need to have them back in their life, their routine. They essentially lose whatever power they have over them, and feel powerless without them.
Irony in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde The play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is full of irony. Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, the protagonists in the play, get themselves into a complicated situation called Bunburyism (as Algernon refers to it). They pretend to be someone that they are not to escape their daily lives. They lie to the women they admire, and eventually the truth is revealed.
Lying is the huge problem in the story that has everyone confused. It starts with Laurie's mom not knowing who Charles is. What she does not know is that secretly Charles is actually Laurie. Laurie’s parents are always wondering about Charles but never knew who it is. At the PTA meeting Laurie's mom wants to find out who Charles’ parents really are.
Irony can often be found in many literary works. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is masterfully written full of irony. The characters of the short story, Mrs. Mallard, Josephine, Richards, Mr. Brently Mallard, and the doctors all find their way into Chopin’s ironic twists. Chopin embodies various ironies in “The Story of an Hour” through representations of verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony.
Irony in Katherine Mansfield’s story “Miss Brill” demonstrates the reasoning of Mansfield’s argument. Every day we should live our lives not thinking about what others think of us, but some people do. Many occasions we come across others who are on their own paths. When we go out in public, we observe one another and maybe make judgments about the people we see or talk with. These judgments can shape how we see ourselves.