Irony In 'The History Teacher' By Billy Collins
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Example: “The children would leave his classroom / for the playground to torment the weak / and the smart” (Collins 14-16).
Function: In “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins, a history teacher lies to his students in order to protect their innocence. This series of events swings full circle and backfires. After the history teacher describes historical events with extreme understatements, “The children would leave his classroom / for the playground to torment the weak / and the smart” (Collins
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This is only one of the five ways that the history teacher deceives the children by emitting false information to them. The irony lies in the fact that his purpose as an educator is to relay only accurate historical information, with the hopes that children retain the information; in spite of that, the history teacher does the inverse. He is releasing misleading information and at the same time, exploiting the children because they are only becoming more ignorant by his
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1. Irony as we talked about in class is considered to be intellectual or a sort of dry humor. It also has a double meaning, where you say one thing but the opposite meaning is implied. For example, in the reading “SantaLand Diaries” David and another elf realized that Santa is an anagram of Satan. So they would substitute the word for Santa by using Satan in front of customers.
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In the poems “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur and “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins, both poets portray how different explanations to children pan out. Both poems describe the speaker being dishonest to one or multiple students, however, one is more of a little white lie while the other is a lie on a much bigger scale. The first poem utilizes personification and humor to coax a child back to sleep by easing her fears. The second poem applies homonyms and hyperbole to maintain the innocence of a room full of students. Through the use of these different literary techniques, the poets are able to express how the adults provide an explanation for children.
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He would not answer yay or nay to his indictment; for if he denied charge they’d hang him surely, and auction out his property. So he stand mute, and died Christian under the law.” (Miller, pg. 125). Irony can be found in an event or statement that’s meaning is directly opposite to what someone might expect.
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Irony, a kind of literature device, happens when two completely opposite things are placed next to each other for a more impactful effect. Chaim Potok’s The Chosen depicts this literary device a few times in the story. During Danny’s visits to Reuven in the hospital, the two boys reveal many things to each other. Amidst their conversation, the boys’ dream jobs happened to become the center of discussion.
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The poem “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins has a greater lie than “The Death of Santa Claus”, in its intention to save the innocence of students. It is necessary to tell the truth when the lie is destroying students future and breeding ignorance. To begin, in this poem the history teacher is trying to protect the innocence of his students by simplifying most historic allusions to make them sound friendly and less important. For example Collins writes, “The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more than an outbreak of questions...” (Collins 7-8).
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The Ironic Truth Irony is a complex and important element of literature that can help discover hidden perspectives within characters or hide the truth in plain sight. The story by Edgar Allen Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado” is a great example the dark ironic twist that happen in the story. The main character, Montresor, is hell-bent on getting his revenge on the man who shamed him, Fortunato. The verbal and dramatic irony that is being used in the story “The Cask of Amontillado” helps hide the true intentions that Montresor has planned for Fortunato. Verbal irony happens when one character says one thing but actually means something completely different.
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Federigo’s Falcon’s Irony Authors use irony to make their audience stop and think about what has just been said, excite the reader, build suspense, or to even emphasize the idea. There are three types of irony: Verbal, Situational, and Dramatic. In Federigo’s Falcon by Giovanni Boccaccio, all three types of irony are used in different ways throughout the story. For instance, a clear example of Situational Irony is at the end of short story.
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Edgar Allan Poe creates horror and suspense in his use of irony -including verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony-in his short story “ The Tell-Tale Heart”. Verbal irony is when something that is said means the opposite of what is meant. Poe uses verbal irony when he states, “ I loved the old man.” Situational irony is similar. It is defined as when what happens is different from or even the opposite of what we expected.
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The History Teacher by Billy Collins, portrays a history teacher as thoughtful and protective over his students. From the beginning, it is shown that the teacher is not giving his students the full story to help maintain their innocence. The very first line of the poem states, “Trying to protect his students’ innocence” The author directly states that the teacher is trying to protect his students by telling them that “ the Ice Age was really just the Chilly Age, a period of a million years when everyone had to wear sweaters.”, instead of telling them about how scary it really was. Similarly, the history teacher goes through many different historical events and downplays them to not sound as bad as they were. “The War of the Roses took place
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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)
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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.
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Life can often be shaped based on the truths and extended truths that people are taught throughout their life. Billy Collins’ “The History Teacher” discusses the distorted truths that a history teacher gives to his students in an attempt to shield them from the harshness that history has revealed. The allusions throughout the poem stand to depict what the main character should be teaching, while the understatements point out the untruths the students are actually learning. The untruth the students are taught truly becomes revealed through the understatements throughout the poem as the teacher attempts to shield his students, ignorant of their cruel actions, which inevitably demonstrates the speaker’s criticism.
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Children go to school to gain knowledge, but life can give children the most important education. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem, and Scout are two growing children navigating life in the 1930’s in racist Alabama. They see racism throughout their town and have to navigate how they want to live their lives or follow their town. In their own school, they see racist people, and they often question what they hear, see, and learn.
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Irony is an element used to appear to the audience for comedic purposes which usually defines
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