Exploring Irony And Humor

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giving an unexpected end to a situation. “Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her.” (O. Henry 35). O. Henry chooses to use surprise as a type of humor in this situation, because it is the best way to get his point across. Jim is completely surprised to see that Della has cut off her hair. The audience knows this because we know that the gift Jim bought her is exclusively for Della’s hair. This situation is very humorous and O. Henry does this by giving an unexpected end to this situation. O. Henry used humor here to draw his audiences attention to Jim’s personality. By doing so the audience sees Jim as a wonderful guy with a great personality and a positive outlook on life. He is able to get all this information across to his audience with the use of surprise humor. “O. Henry, pseudonym for William Sydney Porter, reached great ...

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is Hoel Helga’s criticism which says, “The preference of Maggie over Dee makes me uncomfortable as an educated woman partly estranged from my roots myself. I have no wall space on which to hang the quilt I inherited from my great-aunt, but the family churn has a prominent place in my living room as has also my mother's spinning wheel. I do not know how to quilt, I do not know how to make butter in that churn and I cannot spin. Am I therefore a fool because I not only keep, but also strongly value this part of my heritage?” This is not to say that Alice Walker intends to say that every educated woman thinks this way, she is talking specifically about Dee and her attitude towards her ...

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