Irony

  The definition of "irony" is to use words to portray something that is the opposite of what the literal meaning of the phrase is. It is a statement or language when used in writing it can mean when something we don't expect to happen, happens. An example of a ironic situation might be "you see someone protesting against McDonalds, while eating a Big Mac. "I wouldn't expect someone who is against McDonalds to be eating there".Or "Let's say you are talking about going away to Florida, and out of nowhere somebody just hands you a Florida ticket" That can be another example of an ironic situation. A way irony has existed in my life is when different events happen. Let's say I'll be talking about a person that I have a long time without seeing them and out of nowhere I bump into them for some ironic reason. Verbal irony occurs when the writer says one thing but conveys an entirely different meaning. An example is "The best defense is a good offense." Dramatic irony is when the words and actions of the characters of a work of literature have a different meaning for the reader than they do for the characters. This is the result of the reader having a greater knowledge than the characters themselves.

  The poem "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson describes how Cory was rich and was admired as a king. People thought he was everything and had a great life for example in one of the quote from the poem it says "And he was always quietly arrayed,And he was always human when he talked" this example explains how specific he would talk and how they admired him. Richard Cory was very rich so therefore he dressed in a way that caught people's attention. An example from the poem that helps us see that is when the author says "He was a gentleman from sole to crown,Clean favored, and imperially slim". The way he behaved might have been kindly because in the poem it says "But still he fluttered pulses when he said,Good-morning,and he glittered when he walked" meaning he always would be kind to people and greet them. People reacted to Cory as if he were a king and as a very wealthy man and honorable. The last line of the poem is surprising because it says "Richard Cory, one calm summer night,Went home and put a bullet through his head". This line is surprising because I would've never thought such a wealthy man and honorable man would just take his life away out of any where.  This poem shocked me in a way that it was very strange how a man can have so much money and be happy, and all of a sudden he takes his life away for no reason. In this poem irony is created in  the sense that Cory lived such a great life and appeared to living well and the outcomes were that he just put a bullet to his head, when I thought he was living good he just killed himself.

    The story "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl is an example of irony. The story is about a woman named Mary Maloney and how she's waiting for her husband to come home from work after he arrives he says he needs to tell her something which was that he had another woman and he was leaving him. After the husband told her the breaking news she was acting surprised still insisting to make him some dinner , she had brought a lamb and while he wasn't looking she beat him with the lamb and then she went to the grocery store to buy some vegtables as if nothing had happened  "She carried the meat into the kitchen, placed it in a pan, turned the oven on high, and shoved it inside. Then she washed her hands and ran upstairs to the bedroom. She sat down before the mirror, tidied her hair, touched up her lips and face. She tried a smile. It came out rather peculiar. She tried again". When she came back from the grocery store and saw that her husband was still laying on the floor she called the cops and said her husband was murdered she was sobbing on the phone pretending like she wasn't the killer after the cops arrived they saw that the husband was hit with something on the head an example from the story would be "Her husband, he told her, had been killed by a blow on the back of the head administered with a heavy blunt instrument, almost certainly a large piece of metal. They were looking for the weapon. The murderer may have taken it with him, but on the other hand he may have thrown it away or hidden it somewhere on the premises". As the cops looked for evidence she offered them some dinner which was the lamb she had killed her husband with little did they know that the evidence they were looking for, was being eaten by them. The ironic situation in this story is that the woman killed her husband and she called the cops and the cops ate the evidence. This is ironic because the cop says they can smell the evidence right under the nose but the ironic part is that it is because they are eating it.

  In the article "The House that Slaves Built" it explains how the White House was built and how many slaves helped build it. Back then slaves were not allowed in the White House because of slavery until one day that Franklin D. Roosevelt's wife include black people on the guest list for them to go to the White House.  Bess Abell who was the White House secretary found one of the black women crying and had asked her why she was crying and she replied "There's nothing wrong. This is the most wonderful day of my life. When I first came to Washington, I couldn't get a hotel room, and tonight, I danced with the President". The black women was more happy to dance with the President then instead of getting into a hotel room. The ironic situation in this article is that back then black people weren't allowed to be in the White House and they were treated badly, but now the outcomes are that our President is black. Barack Obama and his family live in the White House now, which some people from history would've probably never thought that.

   In the article "Is it ironic that so many don't understand irony?"  many people make several comments about irony, one of the people that stated an example said: "2. Is it ironic. that the name of Britain's biggest dog was Tiny?" . I think this is quite ironic because people wouldn't usually name a big dog Tiny. It's an ironic point of view because a dog being big and his name being Tiny is rare that it happens. An example that another person gave about irony was "A Nebraska teenager - dressed as a mobile breathalysing unit for a Halloween party - was pulled over on his way home and arrested for drink-driving".  This is ironic because it's surprisingly how a teenager would get dressed as a breathalysing and then get pulled over by the cops and get arrested because he probably would've never imagined that happening to him. Another example is "Tim Schrader, an Australian convicted in Thailand for heroin smuggling and sentenced to death, received a Royal pardon on medical grounds after contracting HIV as a result of sharing needles during his heroin use while in prison" I don't think this is ironic though because of the fact if we kept using heroin and sharing needles with people the chances are we will catch something eventually, but being pardon to death was his only choice because eventually he was going to die being sentenced or not.  The other example somebody posted up was "if you have a phobia of longs words you have to tell people that you have Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia?"  This is ironic because if I am scared of long words there's no point on saying the whole long word on why I have a phobia for it. One of the examples of irony would be "there is a song about the phobia of music" I think this is ironic because if I have a phobia for music I wouldn't even make a song for it just because of the fact I have a phobia for it.

 

This picture is ironic because, the patient  is going to surgery and she's scared of needles but yet she has tattoos and many piercings, so the fact that she scared on going to surgery with needles seems ironic because besides all she has tattoos and piercings.

   In the song "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette, it gives many example towards how irony works. One of the verses of the song says "An old man turned ninety-eight,He won the lottery and died the next day" this explains irony because if a old man wins the lottery you expecting him to have fun and live more but out of nowhere he dies the next day so it's pretty ironic for soemthing like that to happen.  The other verse says "Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly, He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye" this ironic because if somebody is afraid to fly and they take a flight to leave it's ironic and the verse finishes saying how the plane crashed, this is pretty ironic because the day he got on a plane being afraid the plane crashed the same day.  In the last verse it also says "A traffic jam when you're already late,A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break" this is also ironic because when we're late we are hoping there won't be any traffic but instead we bump into more traffic. If we smoke and on our break we want to do it right there we see a sign of no smoking. It's ironic because you wouldn't expect these things to happen.

  As I watched a short video it talks about how a girl says that older people are becoming more anti-social but during a pause they show older people are ridding bikes, and driving cars. She also says that the way of her living is by making a Facebook page, and she had made one for her parents she had 687 friends and her parents only 19  so she finds it fun to be on Facebook while older people are being active. This seems ironic because the way of living good is not by being on a Facebook page.

   Irony is very  important and how is part of our daily lives. Irony is important because it's a situation we might be in and we won't expect whatever we have on our mind that happens right in the moment. Many of us experience irony everyday because it frequently happens to us in a way that we thinking about something and it just so happens that the situatuion we was thinking about occurs, and that's something people find surprising. These are my ideas on why I think irony is important in our lives.