ipl-logo

How Does Brierce Use Irony In The Open Boat

1200 Words5 Pages

Irony is usually thought of to be used in a humorous tone, and most of the time it is. These two works of Bierce and Crane take irony and transform it into three other kind of ironies: situational irony, dramatic irony, and verbal irony. All of these ironies can be thought of to the same degree. All three of these are used when an event that happens seems contrary to what one would expect (Merriam-Webster.com). It's kind of like when a professional race car driver crashes. They're supposed to be the best driver in the world, but even they crashed. It seemed pretty ironic. Bierce introduced his idea of these ironies during the realism movement while Crane introduced them in the naturalism movement. Both Ambrose Bierce and Stephen Crane …show more content…

This irony is most common and is used a lot. In “The Open Boat”, as the men are struggling to keep the dinghy afloat, the captain revives their hopes of getting to shore by saying “'Oh, well...we'll get ashore all right.'” But this wasn't necessarily true as the fierce wind would hold them back. However, the oiler responds to the captain with “'Yes! If this wind holds'” (NAAL 586). This is deemed ironic because the strong wind is actually how the men and the dinghy are in this situation anyways. The wind is creating big waves which keep coming into the boat. So really, they don't want the wind to keep up, but the oiler believes it needs to keep up. This idea crushes the hope of getting back to shore as the men realize the wind is no good to them. In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, during this time of the country gentlemen were look at with some kind of certain respect as a gentlemen was hard to find. Peyton considered himself a gentlemen but when it comes to the crime of war, being a gentlemen means nothing. “The liberal military code makes provision for hanging many kinds of people, and gentlemen are not excluded” (NAAL 319). This is ironic because even though in regular society, being a gentlemen is basically royalty but when doing a crime it doesn't matter, everyone gets hanged, including Peyton: the self acclaimed

Show More
Related

  • How Does Frederick Douglass Use Irony In Slavery

    134 Words  | 1 Pages

    Irony is one of the rhetorical devices in which it it uncovers the difference between the truth and something expected. Predominantly, it detects the misconceptions or the unfairness of a specific situation. (http://figurativelanguage.net/Irony.html) Most of the time, Frederick Douglass used irony in order to uncover the defect in the reasoning of the issue of slavery. For instance, in the third chapter, Douglass made a description about the obssesive care of his previous master named Colonel Lloyd on his horses.

    Read More

  • Irony In Monica Stone's Camp Harmony

    112 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the story Camp Harmony, by Monica Stone, irony is used by the author to convey a message. For example, the word itself means “agreement; accord; harmonious relations”, according to Dictionary.com. The author, however, describes how inharmonious the camp is, “What was I doing behind a fence, like a criminal?If there were accusations to be made, why hadn’t I been given a fair trial?” (Stone, 323). This quote shows how at the time, the author was so confused as to why she and her family was at the camp when they had done nothing to deserve imprisonment.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

    937 Words  | 4 Pages

    An example of irony can be seen in one of Miss Gates' lessons about democracy and dictatorship. She says "Over here we don't believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced. Pre-ju-dice,". It is ironic that she can recognize the persecution of the jews, yet cannot recognize the persecution that happens in her own country- the persecution of the African-Americans.

    Read More

  • Irony In 'The Narrative Life Of Frederick Douglass'

    561 Words  | 3 Pages

    Foster and is one of New York Times Best Sellers. This book explains everything you will ever need to know about literature and more ,and it has a chapter on irony. This book states that “Irony trumps everything”(Foster 252). One story the book talks about is the “The Arrow of Heaven” This story is about a man being killed by an arrow ,but no one knows how he was killed by the arrow because he was in a “high tower with higher windows” (Foster 255).

    Read More

  • Irony In 'The History Teacher' By Billy Collins

    389 Words  | 2 Pages

    Irony: A literary device that uses contradictory statements or situations to reveal a reality different from what appears to be true. A state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result. Example: “The children would leave his classroom / for the playground to torment the weak / and the smart” (Collins 14-16).

    Read More

  • Irony In Good Country People By Flannery O Connor

    1407 Words  | 6 Pages

    The concealment of a deeper meaning through the use of irony is a powerful tool that can be utilized to bring about a greater impact to the actual meaning of what was intended. The use of irony is more common than it is thought to be, thus resulting in an incorrect use of the language device. In the article “Word police: irony & ironic” it is stated, “People routinely use without knowing what they mean. No one seems to use the dictionary anymore--and thus they end up sounding ignorant. ”(1).

    Read More

  • Irony In Spunk By Zora Neale Hurston

    638 Words  | 3 Pages

    Zora Hurston uses irony when Joe attempts to kill Spunk with a " hollow ground razor" but instead he gets shot. Ironically, later in the story Spunk gets killed by a much bigger blade. " ... the saw got him in the body" (Hurston). This irony shows reflects

    Read More

  • Figurative Language In An Occurrence At Owl Bridge Creek

    909 Words  | 4 Pages

    “An Occurrence at Owl Bridge Creek” takes place in the Southern United States during the American Civil War. One thing to remember about the Civil War is that most of the fighting took place on southern soil, and for the Union to succeed in winning the war, their forces had to conquer the South. Not only that, but due to the agriculture being so profitable in the South, few southerners saw a need for industrial development, which resulted in the need to destroy the blockades to prevent northern troops from advancing southward. Late in the Civil War, the Union and the Confederacy strived to dominate the rail lines in northern Alabama, with the Confederates frantically dismantling critical establishments to delay the northerners advance and fracture

    Read More

  • Irony In The Tell-Tale Heart And The Lottery

    471 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Verbal Irony In The Canterbury Tales

    392 Words  | 2 Pages

    Irony is broken up into three specific types. The first is situational, in which what is expected to happen isn’t going to happen and simply the opposite of it actually occurs. The second is related to verbal irony which is in regard to the words that are being used to mean something different from what is meant to be said. Lastly, is dramatic irony in which the reader knew something that the main character did not. One of the situations of situational irony is when the pardon is being sold for sins such as greed and dishonesty even though the pardoner himself is actually practicing these types of societal ills.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Irony In The Wizard Of Oz

    542 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many books have irony, but no book utilizes it more than L. Frank Baum in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Some of these numerous ironic things include, Scarecrow having no brain but solves most of the problems. Tin Woodman has no heart, yet he still feels emotions. Cowardly Lion says he has no courage, but he is incredibly courageous when he needs to. In the book, these supporting characters encounter their ironic internal conflicts along their journey through Oz.

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel Use Of Dramatic Irony In Night

    2142 Words  | 9 Pages

    In writing, there are multiple types of irony. One type is verbal irony, when the character says something, but means the opposite. This is commonly recognized as sarcasm. Second, there is situational irony, where the outcome is the opposite of what was expected to happen. Last, there is dramatic irony, where the audience is told or informed of something that the characters do not yet know.

    Read More

  • Cask Of Amontillado Irony Essay

    657 Words  | 3 Pages

    One example of situational irony is first, the name “Fortunato” means “Fortunate” in Italian, but Fortunato is actually very unfortunate. Next, the word “cask” means “wine barrel,” but coffin also comes from the same word. So in other words, Fortunato believes he will reach a cask of wine, but in all actuality he will reach his coffin. Also, another great example of situational irony comes when Montresor has just dismembered Fortunato and exits the catacombs. Then, Montresor claims, “My heart grew sick-“(240).

    Read More

  • The Use Of Irony In The Cask Of Amontillado

    552 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first way irony is used would be a form of verbal irony, this is seen when Montresor first sees Fortunato at the carnival and states, "My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met" (237). Poe uses irony in this statement, meaning one thing, but obviously stating another, by being luckily met, nevertheless he does not mean he was lucky in a

    Read More

  • Theme Of Irony In Desiree's Baby

    1210 Words  | 5 Pages

    Irony is a technique that involves surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions or contrasts ( Glossary... Pg 1). The greatest example of irony happens when it turns out Armand is the one that comes from black heritage. He learns this when he “finds a letter from his mom to his father explaining how he is black” turning the main plot of this story around (Chopin... Pg 5)

    Read More

More about How Does Brierce Use Irony In The Open Boat

Open Document