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Situational Irony In 'Ransom Of Red Chief'

881 Words4 Pages

Robert A.Heinlein once said “The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out alive”. Irony is powerful and can majorly affect someone’s life and emotions. Authors use situational irony to create an unexpected twist in the plot of the story. This grabs the reader's attention and also leaves the reader intrigued. For example the situational irony in “The Ransom of Red chief” by O.Henry gives the reader a humorous emotion, and the situational irony in “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant uses situational irony to make the readers feel sympathy. By viewing the two short stories it it clear that both authors easily use situational irony to impact the reader's emotion. The short story “Ransom of Red chief” by O.Henry has many examples of situational irony that gives the reader a feeling of amusement. For example Johnny is ecstatic when he is kidnapped, but when someone’s kidnapped, he or she is terrified and scared and wants to go home. Johnny was thrilled to be captured and even begged the kidnappers not to take him home. Johnny even believes the whole thing is a game and he calls himself the Red Chief and Bill and Sam are the hostages; when in real life Johnny is the hostages. Sam said to himself “yes,sir,that boy seemed to be having the time of his life. The fun of …show more content…

Both Guy de Maupassant and O.Henry utilize situational irony in their stories to impact the reader's emotion. In “The Necklace” Guy de Maupassant uses situational to create a sympathetic emotion. O.Henry utilizes situational irony in his story “Ransom of Red chief” to give the reader a humorous emotion. Now it is clear that both authors use situational irony to produce an emotion within the readers. Most people do not even notice, but everybody experiences situational irony throughout he or she’s everyday life. situational irony is utilized by many authors including, Guy de Maupassant and O.Henry to create a emotion within the

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