As we have been reading Oedipus Rex, we have discussed dramatic and verbal irony several times. In your book have there been any examples of irony? Describe the situation in detail (what is happening in the situation, what makes it ironic, etc.) and provide specific text evidence from the book to support your answer.
If there is no irony whatsoever in your book, please give me an overview of what's going on in your plot. Tell me how you feel about the plot of your book. What part of the plot are you in (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution)? What plot events have come as a surprise to you? What is your opinion on the development of any of the elements of plot (does your author do a good job of developing the plot? How is the pacing?)? Are the plot events believable? Which ones? How so? If they are not believable, why aren't they, and what would you do to change them? Use specific examples from your text!
12 comments:
I'm reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. His writing style is very sarcastic and dark, so there is a lot of irony in this book. The most dramatically ironic part of it is knowing that, in the end, it's all going to be okay. This book is kind of a fictionalized autobiography that follows the author through the death of his parents and his new role as guardian of his younger brother, Toph. He has meltdowns and freakouts and panics a lot, but nothing truly horrible happened and everything was alright by the end of the book.
Id say im reaching the climax of the book that i am reading and this boy who is only in ninth grade and he is dieing and he knows it but then again he does not know it. He writes to Albert Einstien about a theory that he had and Einstien was shocked that a boy at such a young age knows this much and he just got out of the hospital. A collage professer who is a professional in science wonders how the boy came up with the theory that he did and would like to talk with him and try and see if they can figure the theory out.
I read Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The most ironic part of the book is one character and how they act. Miss Ophelia is from Vermont, which was a free state during this time period. She left Vermont to live with her cousin and his family in New Orleans, which was not free during this time. Upon arriving at her cousin's house, her cousin's daughter runs up and hugs a mulatto slave and kisses her (in a non-weird way). Miss Ophelia is absolutely appalled by this, which is shown by her stating “Well, I want to be kind to everybody, and I wouldn't have anything hurt; but as to kissing––“ (Stowe 140). Though she's from a free state and believes slavery is wrong, she does not think that kissing the mulatto is acceptable. More situations like this happen throughout the book.
I read Uncle Tom's Cabin. There is a slave owner who runs into some financial problems and is forced to sell two of his slaves, Tom and Harry. Harry is a little boy and Tom is about middle aged. Harry's mother hears that he is going to be sold and runs away with him, while Tom stays on the plantation and goes with the slave trader. The book follows the paths of these slaves (mostly Tom's) as Harry and his mother escape to freedom and Tom passes through different slave owners, until he dies. Throughout the book a handful of characters die, all the deaths were what surprised me. The author does a very good job developing the plot. Though a little corny, at the end of the book the author relates all the separate characters. The pacing of the book is good until the end when it rushes through everything. The plot events are pretty believable, it shows the different ways slaves were treated and the wide spectrum of types of slave owners. Most of the events in the book the author said she based off of true stories.
I'm reading Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult. In my story one of most ironic things is that Addie still believes her daughter is alive but as a reader we know that is not true because of what the other characters have said. The book goes back and forth between 4 characters points of view which is some times hard to follow.In this book the plot is very good and the author does a good job developing it.
I am currently in the rising action part of my book, Plain Truth. The plot has been crazy and all kinds of things have been happening. At first it was just on this Amish farm and everything was going well and then dead baby was found and things have been thrown for loop ever since. The attorney for eighteen year old who is suspected to have had the baby is staying at the Amish house with the girl because somebody has to be with her and the judge wanted it to be family, "That's certainly devoted of you, counsel, but we're looking for a family member," but it turns out the the attorney is the girl's cousin. Now the attorney has to go everywhere with them and it is all knew to her. Even though she is part of their family she does not practice the Amish ways. The author has done a good job of showing the plot and writing it. the pacing has been great. It has a lot in it but it does not feel rushed or pushed along. There was one part of the plot that was a bit of a surprise. This Amish family has banned their son from the house because of a sin that he did. This was crazy to me because I thought that they always forgave but not here. But the brother does come back once a year to come visit the families pond where their sister drowned when she was little. The plot is very believable and everything that is going on in the book is something that I could see happening in real life and that does happen in real life all the time. I would go a little more in depth in what happen with the interaction between the family and the attorney, because even though they are family they do not seem to get along that great and it would really be interesting to see how much they interact during the day and what they say or do.
I changed to the book Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane. The only irony I have seen in this book so far is that Helene, "the child who got kidnaped," mother acts all sad about losing her child when asked about it on tv, but when cameras aren't on her she is only concerned for herself and how the publicity might benefit her. I am only in the rising action but the book is really good so far, and keeps me wanting to read more. The plot events are very believable, and I could see whats happening in the book happening in real life, because there are bad parents in real life like Helene in Gone Baby Gone.
Currently in my book, the main character has just been elected non willingly to stay and work on what you would call a pirate ship by the captain. Background info (the boat he was on sank, he was picked up floating in the ocean by pirates, he asked them to take him ashore, the captain said no you will work for me or you will be killed now, so obviously he is staying.) So far the plot in the book is very exciting. It makes you nervous reading the book because you imagine as if you were the main character that has just been through what has happened above. I believe I am still in the rising action because he has thought about escaping but has not yet done it and I think that his escape or attempt to escape will be the climax. One plot event that came to a surprise to me was when the captain said that the main character would either work for him or be killed instantly. I thought that the captain would take the man to shore because the man offered to give the captain any amount of money that he wanted if he were to take him to the land. I think that the author has done a great job of developing the plot. Every time you think you know what is going to happen the plot changes and then you have just been surprised by what has happened, which makes the book exciting to read because everything that happens is unexpected. You have to read the book to find out what will happen next, you can't just guess what will happen next and be right like in previous books I have read. I think the book is really well paced. I like that the exposition is kind of long so that you really get to know the main character. I also like that the rising action is so long because it builds a lot of suspense up for the climax. The long rising action (suspense) is what keeps you reading so far into the book, if it was short and wasn't as suspenseful then I probably would have quit reading it by now. As for the plot events, they are believable. The fact that the main character is pretty much being kept as a worker on this ship is very much what pirates would have done. The book is a very believable story for the time period the setting takes place in. If all of this were to happen in modern day, it wouldn't be believable.
During one chapter of the book, it is mentioned that a man in a parachute had fallen to his death on the island, or had long ago. It is shown to the reader that he is just a dead man in a parachute. However, his body ends up hanging from the trees, parachute blowing menacingly behind. To several of the kids in the dark, his corpse looks like some sort of scary, giant winged beast. A few children actually end up dying due to the chaos the fear of said beast caused. It isn't until later that one of the kids learns the truth, but before he can say anything to the others, he is killed in a sort of tribal sacrifice to the very beast he was about the prove unreal.
I've read The Mist, by Stephen King. The most ironic parts of the book were at the beginning, after the storm and as the mist is moving into the town they're in. The characters in the book are contemplating when the mist is going to go away, complaining about its presence, etc. The irony is dramatic irony, with the audience knowing of the mists' importance, and knowing that it is anything but normal.
I was reading The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. There are several examples of irony throughout the book. One example is when Ms. Sandry refers to Rose of Sharons baby as a live tumor, as opposed to congratulating Rose for her child. This is an ironic situation because it is unusual for a person to insult a pregnant woman.
I don't think that there are any examples in my book. It's not a very ironic situation. It's just sort of scary. But there might be examples I haven't picked up on, that's a possibility. I'm in the falling action bit in my book and I was very pleased with the climax of the whole thing. It was paced well, though it wasn't very believable because of the lack of scientific facts and whatnot the way the writer described the reaction of the people and the narrator of the story was very believable and well written. I think everyone to some degree can relate to her examples of anxiety and fear.
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