Irony In Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man

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).

There is a strong sense of irony in the short story “The Interlopers” because Nature always seems to take its course, especially when the feuding men turn friends think they are in control of the situation. In an attempt to be saved the men issued, “hunting calls” (Saki online). Typically, a hunting call is in an attempt to lure in animals to be hunted and killed. The two men were successful in luring in animals, however, it is likely these animals will not be helpful for the men to surround themselves with. The ending of the story is an example of irony, “Wolves” (Saki 301).

The significance of irony is shown when “In the living room the voice-clock sang, Tick-tock, seven o'clock, time to get up, time to get up, seven o'clock! as if it were afraid that nobody would” (Bradbury 1). This is ironic because the clock shouts as if there was no one there when there in fact was no one there. This gives the story an empty tone because the house doesn’t know that it's empty and still functions. The nuclear disaster has left all life dead or dying, however “Out of warrens in the wall, tiny robot mice darted” (Bradbury 1).

In addition irony is also used in these stories. In "The Story of an Hour" situational irony occurs. "When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: 'free, free, free! '" (527)

Kurt Vonnegut, the author, uses irony to help the reader understand the way the United States could take a horrifying turn by 2081 if worldwide equality was implemented. One example of irony that the author uses is the education and IQ level of the people, which is lower than the government. The government can then control human beings with higher IQ and stronger built by giving them handicaps. Hazel and George are two representations of the two types of people in

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.

The author concludes the narration with George and Hazel’s calm and ironic conversation after just watching their son, Harrison being shot dead on live television. This particular scene is ironic because in reality no parent would be calm after watching his or her own son being killed in that way. The author chooses to end the story with irony to make fun of the thought of needing equality in the world because it is just something that we cannot control. The author uses various ironic examples in the narration, Harrison Bergeron to demonstrate that an unprejudiced

Another example of irony is the parents failed attempt of understanding the consequences of spoiling the kids: “We’ve given the children everything they ever wanted. Is this our reward—secrecy, disobedience?” “After all, we’re not criminals, whatever else we are. We’ve got to tell someone.” This quote is ironic because the parents are worried about their children's disobedience and secrecy, but they fail to see their role in creating these problems.

Situational Irony is a very important element in literature and can be found in many famous literary works including Ray Bradbury’s There Will Come Soft Rains. Situational Irony adds drama to the story and engages the reader. There are three specific examples of situational irony in There Will Come Soft Rains: The house continues to perform its daily tasks even though no one lives there, the house is destroyed by a tree branch that starts a fire yet it survived a nuclear fallout, and Mrs. McClellan’s favorite poem describes the situation in the story. The first example of situational irony can be seen in the fact that the house continues to do its everyday tasks even though all of the humans that used to live there are dead.

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.

Irony is often used in literature to illustrate certain situations to the audience. In some pieces of literature that might be pointing out an unjust system, in others that might be to add a comedic effect, but whatever situation the author wants to illustrate, irony is very beneficial. Through small and witty, one-liners, or a bigger dramatic irony situation contrasting two very different situations, irony can be very beneficial for the reader to understand the story. Both “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins have a corrupt dystopian society. Through the use of irony, the author can portray the corruptness to the audience.

He uses this irony as a way to show the aftermath of the over-advancement of technology that lead to human destruction. Bradbury uses the irony to show the advancement of technology. In the short story Bradbury sets the mice in the future as being nothing close to their counter-parts in the past. He uses this to give us an insight into the mood of the story by making it in a post apocalyptic scene in which humans are not present and robots Take their job and run the

Desiree’s Baby is a short story by Kate Chopin. “Desiree’s Baby” takes place before the Civil War in a time when black people were neglected and mistreated by the whites. Desiree was abandoned and left behind by her parents when she was a toddler by a big stone pillar. She was found and declared adopted by Madame and Monsieur Valmonde. Armand a man that was really harsh to blacks falls in love with Desiree and gets married with her without knowing anything about her ancestry.

Irony can be seen throughout the story in the words and phrases of the character. The irony can create a disturbing, yet slightly humorous scene with the audience not knowing what’s coming for the characters. In the short story, The Cask Of Amontillado, irony can be seen through the conversations of the two characters, Montresor and Fortunato. Although, Montresor is the character with most literary devices. Verbal irony can be seen in the story when Montresor told the “attendees” to stay in the house while he was gone.

For example, when the day 's described as “clear and sunny” it 's ironic because it ends with the “brutal death” of a person. The way Jackson described the day made us think it was going to be enjoyable but it showed us otherwise. Another example would be Mr. Summers’s name. His persona leads us to believe that he 's the kind man in the story