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Parties & birthday parties essay
Essay on situational irony
Situational irony examples
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In the short story “the Birthday Party” by Katharine Brush, the author use of many literary devices helps to convey her purpose. The purpose which was the way women were treated during the 1940’s. This was shown through diction of the authors shor writing and its situational irony.
Clear and straightforward the author shows a more plain diction. This helps by telling the reader the events in a forward situation since it is short. Additionally, the diction makes it all clear and comprehensible to the reader.
Furthermore, Brush employed situational irony to help present the purpose. Brush started her work with a normal date turning into an occasion, since it ended up being a surprise for the husband the reader would conclude a happy ending
so as the wife. But Brush then started, “It became clear at once that help was needed because the husband was not pleased.” This turned the situation around which later then conveyed the purpose to how with even a nice gesture the husband was ungrateful. As can be seen, the purpose was successfully send to the reader through the author's use of literary devices. Shown through the short story applying a straight and forward message and a situation ending unexpectedly.
Women have traditionally been known as the less dominant sex. Through history women have fought for equal rights and freedom. They have been stereotyped as being housewives, and bearers and nurturers of the children. Only recently with the push of the Equal Rights Amendment have women had a strong hold on the workplace alongside men. Many interesting characters in literature are conceived from the tension women have faced with men. This tension is derived from men; society, in general; and within a woman herself. Two interesting short stories, “The Yellow Wall-paper and “The Story of an Hour, “ focus on a woman’s plight near the turn of the 19th century. This era is especially interesting because it is a time in modern society when women were still treated as second class citizens. The two main characters in these stories show similarities, but they are also remarkably different in the ways they deal with their problems and life in general. These two characters will be examined to note the commonalities and differences. Although the two characters are similar in some ways, it will be shown that the woman in the “The Story of an Hour” is a stronger character based on the two important criteria of rationality and freedom.
In the short story, “Girl,” the narrator describes certain tasks a woman should be responsible for based on the narrator’s culture, time period, and social standing. This story also reflects the coming of age of this girl, her transition into a lady, and shows the age gap between the mother and the daughter. The mother has certain beliefs that she is trying to pass to her daughter for her well-being, but the daughter is confused by this regimented life style. The author, Jamaica Kincaid, uses various tones to show a second person point of view and repetition to demonstrate what these responsibilities felt like, how she had to behave based on her social standing, and how to follow traditional customs.
Most of us can easily picture a typical child's party, loud and hyper boys running about, noise and fun and screaming kids and chaos, but this party seems to be viewed differently by the mother. It is a more serious and quiet event. She sees the boys as "short men" gathering in the living room, not as children having fun. The children seems subdued to us, with "hands in pockets". It is almost as if they are waiting, as the readers are, for something of imp...
In a subtle way, Brush also makes the wife’s actions selfish. Even though her husband was wrong to react in the way that he did, she was also selfish in her actions. Clearly, her husband has a shy personality because “he was hotly embarrassed” (13) in front of “such few people as there were in the restaurant” (11). Using a couple of this age (“late thirties” (1)), Brush asserts that the wife should have known her husband’s preferences and been sensitive to them. The author also uses the seemingly opposite descriptions the couple: “There was nothing conspicuous about them” (5) and the “big hat” (4) of the woman. The big hat reveals the wife’s desire to be noticed.
Historically, women have been treated as second class citizens. The Napoleonic Code stated that women were controlled by their husbands and cannot freely do their own will without the authority of their husband. This paper shows how this is evident in the "Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin and " A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. In both stories, the use of literary elements such as foreshadowing, symbolism, and significant meaning of the titles are essential in bringing the reader to an unexpected and ironic conclusion.
The rational facility of man cannot successfully be revealed, in its entirety, through literal and direct language. Recognizing this reality generated by the nature of such a faculty, Wright utilizes a variety of rhetorical devices, indirect in their capabilities, to establish a realistic and all-encompassing paradigm throughout his story. Consequently, Wright uses irony to shape his characters. Such a methodology is primarily revealed when the writer, assuming the ignorance of his wife, discuss the circumstances intended for her untimely end. Developing exceptional situational qualities, irony is used once more during Lucy’s execution of her dead husband’s plot. Furthermore, that same situational irony is present at the murder of her husband.
In Guy de Maupassant’s story, The Necklace, he utilizes situational irony in order to highlight the theme. He displays this irony in order to reveal several themes that can be observed in the story. One of the major themes in this short story is how appearances can be misleading.
In Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, many women were being accused of witchcraft. The people of the town knew how controversial it was, but the fear instilled in them caused them to go along with the lies. They are forced to choose between survival and what they believe is right, as Puritans. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller depicts his message that self preservation overrides personal morals through imagery and situational irony.
The story can be analyzed using feminist criticism perspective. Feminist criticism is “" the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women"” (Brizee & Tompkins). When reading a text one can find how women were treated in contemporary times. It can be expressed in many areas listed by Brizee & Tompkins. Moreover, Delahoyde also gave more details on the subject when he said “Feminist criticism concern itself with stereotypical representations of genders. It also may trace the history of relatively unknown or undervalued women writers, potentially earning them their rightful place within the literary canon, and helps create a climate in which women's creativity may be fully realized and appreciate.” Women had been undervalued and taken for granted. Many things they do are not as...
Irony is when the reality of a situation is different from what it seems and when something that one does not expect happens. The classic example most commonly used is that of a fire department burning down. Irony can be found in "A Girl's Story" by David Arnason, "Araby" by James Joyce and "The Happy Man" by Naguib Mahfouz. In "A Girl's Story" David Arnason speaks directly to the reader about the process of creating a good story with interesting characters. The most obvious irony of this story is that "A Girl's Story" is written in fact by a man, therefore it should actually be called "A Man's Story" or "A Man's Story About A Girl." Another example of irony is when David Arnason is creating his main character. He is thinking of the hair colour of his character aloud when he remarks: "If I were feeling better I might be able to do it an ironic way, then black hair...
For Olds, watching her son take a role of maturity is quite impressive. Although the birthday party consists of young boys, aging from six to seven they are mentioned in the poem and referred to as “men.” “Short men, men in first grade”, shows that Old is referring the term “men”, to the male guest, as well as her son. “Hands in pockets, they stand around, jostling, jockeying for place, small fights, breaking out and calming” this evidence appoints that Olds son cleared up the uncomfortable setting of his birthday party, and turned the party into a moderate “celebration of his life”. The observation of that Olds viewed of her son’s birthday party, shows that the celebration of her son’s life, will only result into him being an older man, and taking more mature roles. The “relationship cannot be repaired to an original” mommy’s precious little guy, mother and son
Life for women in the 1870’s- 1930’s was a hard time period for women. Women did not have any rights and had just received the rights to vote. They were not given many career choices. Overall women life was hard and they were not treated equal at all compared to the men. The historical settings in “Trifles”, “Sweat”, and “The Storm” helped provide to the readers the woman’s actions in the different literatures are morally right or wrong.
The short story has invariably become regarded as a conservative form of literature given its often rigid, and basic plot dimensions focused on narrow plot and character development. However, with different writers come different experimentations within the short story. This is especially true with the modernism movement in mind. One modernist writer in particular, Katherine Mansfield, was indeed conscious of the possibilities that existed within the form of the short story as is evidenced in The Garden Party and Other Stories, Mansfield’s most prolific collection of short stories. Just as James Joyce sought to innovate the long-standing traditions of the novel, Katherine Mansfield placed her efforts in revolutionizing the short story. Such innovations are seen and can be made note of within Mansfield’s story “The Daughters of the Late Colonel.” Within this brief story, Mansfield sets new definitions for narrative form, as well as character development. In utilizing newfound techniques such as ‘stream of consciousness’ writing and free indirect discourse, Mansfield presents a short story unlike any that had come before it. In using such innovative techniques, within a conservative form, Mansfield successfully helps to pave the way for women modernists while bringing societal issues regarding class and gender to light. Thus, irrevocably proving that the short story is still a viable form of literature to make use of in a modern era.
The beginning of 20th century brings a lot of cultural changes. Gender roles are challenged and redefined. That change is reflected in American literature as well. Ernest Hemingway in “Cat in the Rain” as well as Kate Chopin in “The Story of an Hour” confront changes regarding gender and their roles.
Finally I am able to describe my opinion in the situation, if whether or not society is becoming too dependent on technology. I believe that most of the times technology is helpful in carrying on everyday life, but at times technology isn’t really needed. Technology is used a lot to communicate, but some families don’t even spend time together and later just fall apart. To me medical technology is a very important factor to account for in this situation. Because it can either kill someone or save them. Education has also been brought up into this argument for helping students and affecting students. Family separation, medical advances, and education play a major rule in my decision toward this topic. Technology is a helpful tool for many people while to others it is just a distraction. Technology will never stop being developed but some of the thing being created and how they are used are really not the nessessary