Examples Of Irony In The Veldt

Irony is present in everyday life. It has become the crux of thousands of jokes, remarks and even the media. Thousands of stories include irony in them in the form of ironic twists, characters, and plotlines. The irony in stories is often sidelined or overlooked; however, it can be so much more. In “The Veldt”, it is, in fact, a large part of the story. The Hadley family lives in a Happylife home, an automated and complicated home that does all the chores for you. Inside are many machines, designed to make life easier, such as machines that tie shoelaces, automatic painters, and even voice command cooks. The home even comes equipped with a technologically advanced nursery, where the children can simply imagine what they want, and the room

However, the children grow quite attached to the house itself, slowly driving the whole family apart. Irony is similarly utilized in “Harrison Bergeron.” The government creates a system to make everyone equal. People who are above average in anything are assigned handicaps to make them standard. The strong have weights attached to them constantly, the beautiful wear horrid masks, and the intelligent wear a machine that scrambles their thoughts every 20 seconds. They attempt to create equality by making everyone unequal to each other. Society accepts these rules, however one boy, who is exceptionally amazing at everything, attempts to change the social norms. Both texts, use the irony built into the setting and characters to expand on the story. In Bradbury’s “The Veldt,” and Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”, situational irony is utilized to create the

The children Peter and Wendy are on the outside very sweet and innocent. They do activities one would expect children to do. Even their names represent youth and joy, as they are an allusion to the famous tale of Peter Pan, a story of the magical Peter and child Wendy and her brothers travelling to a magical world called Neverland, where you can never grow up. All the outside signs show Peter and Wendy in a nonthreatening, innocent light. However, their true personalities are ironically quite the opposite. Slowly, the house replaced the parents in the children’s eyes as the authority and with the realization that all they need is the house, the feelings of resentment grew towards their parents. These seemingly sweet and innocent children were underestimated and hid their ironic dark desires from everyone. They let out their desires in the nursery, as it “caught the telepathic emanations of the children’s minds and created life to fill their every desire. The children thought lions, and there were lions. The children thought zebras, and there were zebras. Sun… sun. Giraffes… giraffes. Death and death” (Bradbury 4). The children seem to have normal childish dreams at first, lions and zebras, but near the end their ironic true desires come through. They are dreaming of death, specifically the death of their parents. Peter and Wendy