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Use Of Irony In Hills Like White Elephants

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“How Ironic”. The phrase that everyone living and breathing has said at least once. The rollercoaster of emotion one feels when expectations do not become reality, mostly the contrary of one's expectations is what becomes true. It is a twist that creates a deeper meaning, humor, and individuality and brings awareness of the unpredictable.
Irony is well involved in literature, to engage the reader by deceptively enhancing the narrative. The writer challenges conventional expectations from the reader with thought-provoking and in-depth storytelling. Literature uses several types of irony that can provide layers to a character, conflict, and the writing, such as verbal irony; where the words said by a character can be modified to despair the …show more content…

In “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, is a short story about abortion and how it explores the relationship between Jig and the American man while they have this decision. The StudyCorgi essay “Symbolism, Setting, Irony in Hemingway’s “” Hills Like White Elephants”, mentions that Hemingway uses irony throughout the story so the reader thinks about abortion, this can be seen as dramatic irony. The portrayal of a pregnancy unwanted by the American man but wanted by Jig. It is evident that Jig is not comfortable going through an abortion and the American man knows that she is not comfortable but goad ahead to say that he is not concerned with whatever she does as long as she is content. Ironically, the American man keeps pressuring Jig no matter how many times she has repeated that she does not want to, he keeps saying “It is a simple operation”. The essay shows that the irony creates tension between Jig and the American “almost as blazing as the heat of the sun in Spain”. The American, while encouraging Jig to do the abortion so they can live as how they were before the pregnancy; Jig finds herself overwhelmed and afraid to do so. Due to the tension, Jig makes the hard decision to fulfill expectations and at the same time find peace with

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The short story "Hills Like White Elephants," is about a couple that is really young and the is having a issue about abortion. The author uses a lot of rhetorical devices to convey his message but mostly use imagery and symbolism. The way that the story is told by the author the reader can see the story told in their head. The way that the author describe the hills and the town that they was in it shows a lot of imagery. The story also picture the couple waiting for the train that they had been waiting for.

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937 Words | 4 Pages

Irony brings about some additional meanings to a situation. Ironical statements and situations in literature develop readers’ interest. Irony makes a work of literature more intriguing and forces the readers to use their imagination and comprehend the underlying meanings of the texts. Moreover, real life is full of ironical expressions and situations. Therefore, the use of irony brings a work of literature closer to the life.

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739 Words | 3 Pages

In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway, there is a relationship unfolding, a complex relationship difficult to understand. The relationship is revealed by a conversation between a man and a woman, a topic of conversation that people rarely discussed in the period that the story was set. After researching interpretations, it is consistently said “She is pregnant, and he wants her to have an abortion” (Weeks 76), to which I agree that this conversation is about abortion. With the man seemingly pushing the topic and the girl hesitant and questionable, it is unsure as to the result of their conversation. However, it is my belief that she chose to follow her heart and not get the abortion.

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1407 Words | 6 Pages

This statement proposed that many a times literary devices are used wrongly therefore taking away from the hidden potential of impacting a person's thought into reasoning the deeper meaning of the phrase or statement. Irony is the use of words to describe

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657 Words | 3 Pages

Verbal irony involves a character saying one thing, and meaning another. Situational irony consists of what is expected to happen, and what actually happens. Three types of irony found in Edgar Allan Poe’s, “The Cask of Amontillado”, are dramatic, verbal, and situational irony. A good example of dramatic irony occurs when Montresor explains to Fortunato that he is also a mason. Then, Fortunato asks for a sign.

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1554 Words | 7 Pages

Throughout the short story (1), “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway is speaking about a seemingly unwanted pregnancy and a woman’s uneasiness with going through an abortion. However, Hemingway never explicitly says in this work of fiction (2) that it is about abortion or that the woman, Jig, is uncomfortable with it, but uses symbolism (3) to present this to the audience. At the time “Hills like White Elephants” was published, in 1927, abortion was illegal in most places and a very taboo subject that wasn’t to be openly discussed in public. Thus, Hemingway relied greatly upon the use of symbolism to get his message across for this reason as well as the third person narrator (4) that did not give insight into the character’s thoughts within this piece of literature (5) . He uses symbols such as the train station, white hills, the baggage, and the drinks to point towards the underlying internal conflict (6) of Jig’s decision that is being heavily influenced by the American man, who wants Jig to get the abortion.

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250 Words | 1 Pages

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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Montesquieu: His Philosophies and Their Impact on Europe During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries there was a questioning of the Ancient Régime. France had too strong of a central government. The Scientific Revolution pushed the idea of finding the truth about things which led to the questioning of old beliefs and the Enlightenment. Baron de Montesquieu, a French Enlightenment thinker among many others influenced this shift.

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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 can be used in different ways, authors tend to use irony as a plot device to create conflict, suspense, empathy, and humor. Irony adds more depth, perception, and creativity to the process of storytelling. There are three types of irony; Verbal irony, Dramatic irony, and situational irony. Verbal Irony is when a speaker says the opposite of what they mean, sarcasm can be considered a form of verbal irony. Dramatic Irony is when the audience knows more than the characters, it creates emotion and tension.

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1629 Words | 7 Pages

The dialogue in Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” reveals a man’s and a woman’s incongruent conflict on abortion, and the author’s fundamentally feminist position is visible in the portrayal of the woman’s independent choice of whether or not to keep the baby she is carrying. The plot is very simple in the story which is less than 1500 words long. A woman and a man spend less than an hour on a hot summers day at a Spanish train station in the valley of Ebro as they are waiting for a train heading for Madrid. Their dialogue takes up most of the space and only few major actions take place.

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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.

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1098 Words | 5 Pages

Which is making him more selfish and he does not to have any responsibilities. Also, the reader is also left with a great doubt, as there is no solution. Jig is a Spanish pregnant girl, and she is about to have an abortion. She seems young because she is depending on a careless man.

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1044 Words | 5 Pages

In his story “Hills Like White Elephants”, Ernest Hemingway points out the couple's inability to make the decision: whether to abort the unborn child or not. The reader finds that the story deals with couple's miscommunication through the conversation and the emotions that they express. One can observe that no descriptions are given to the characters, thus, Hemingway creates universal dilemma to focus on the crucial issue. In this way, Hemingway leads the reader to identify with his female character that undergoes a struggle.

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1315 Words | 6 Pages

There are so many teen girls out there that are trying to use the easy way out when it comes to them laying down and getting pregnant. To be honest, they think that abortion is the cure. Abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. An object or undertaking regarded by the speaker as unpleasant or badly made or carried out (Ballaro & Wagner, 2015). Minors are always thinking that they have the rights to do whatever they want to do without and parent supervision.

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