Irony In Short Stories
Published on Nov 18, 2015
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Summary: Jim and his wife Della are a poor couple whom only have 2 prized possessions: Della's long hair and Jim's gold watch passed down to him. With only $1.87, Della cuts her hair and sells it for $20 to buy a pocket watch chain for Jim for Christmas, for $21. When Jim gets home, he gives his present to Della; hair accessories that she can't use with short hair. He then admits that he sold his watch to buy her gift; so the gifts are useless.
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Irony: The irony in this story is that both people bought each other gifts that were then useless. At that point, their only two possessions were gone. On page 3 of the text it says, "And here I lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house." The main point of the story though, is that they both realized their most prized possessions are each other and they don't need the items after all.
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Summary: The families of Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym have been arguing over a strip of land in a forest east of the Karpathians for three generations. One cold, windy night in the forest, the two men of rival families encountered each other on that narrow strip of land. There was a long moment of silence as the men stared at each other each with a rifle in their hand. Suddenly, a shriek of the storm was followed by a crash of a beech tree fallen on top of them both. They discussed how each of their men would capture the other once Gradwitz and Znaeym were found. After another spur of silence, Ulrich shouted joyfully "I can see figures coming through the woods." Ulrich realized then what they are: "Wolves."
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Irony: The irony is that both men would most likely die on the land that they were fighting over. If there wasn't a feud over it, this wouldn't have happened. On page 3 it says, " "Are they your men?" asked Georg. "Are they your men?" he repeated impatiently as Ulrich did not answer. "No," said Ulrich with a laugh, the idiotic chattering laugh of a man unstrung with hideous fear." This story shows how possessions aren't really that important and there is no use of fighting.
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One bright and sunny day, Mr.Johnson leaves his apartment and starts walking down the street happily. In only one day, he helps a woman out by watching her child and feeding him peanuts from his pocket, plays matchmaker for some people on the street, feeds lunch to a beggar, and tells a taxi driver some new facts. When he returns home to his wife, the author reveals that Mr.Johnson is mean one day while Mrs.Johnson is mean, and then they switch.
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Irony: The irony in this story is that the Johnson's aren't who they put out to be. In the beginning of the story it says, "Mr.Johnson radiated a feeling of well-being as he went down the steps and onto the dirty sidewalk.", (Jackson 1). This leads you on to think that Mr.Johnson is a good-spirited and nice person, when in the end the story says, "Fine," said Mr.Johnson. "But you do look tired. Want yo change over tomorrow?" "I would like to," she said. "I could do with a change.", (Jackson 7). It's ironic because you expect Mr.Johnson to be someone else than he really is.
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Conclusion: In these pieces of writing, all authors used situational irony (where the opposite of what you think is going to happen does happen), yet in different ways. In the "Gift of the Magi", the author used irony to show that the real gifts in life aren't items but the things that can't be bought. In "The Interlopers" Saki used irony to explain how pointless arguments are by making the ending lead us to assume that the characters got killed by wolves. Shirley Jackson's irony in "One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts" goes along with one of the most common themes used in literature: 'Don't judge a book by it's cover'. Writers have a way of taking one simple thing like situational irony and being able to make it into many other forms.
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