Irony in The Chaser

Irony is when something is said or done but was meant to mean something else, or when someone says something like, you should never assume the gun isn’t loaded and then pulls the trigger and it is loaded would be irony because the person wasn’t careful about his gun to begin with. In the short story “The Chaser” there is a lot of examples of irony. For example a young man named Alan went to get a love potion because the girl he loved showed no feelings to him. So Alan goes and gets his love potion but the irony is that the potion is so strong that eventually he will need a potion to get rid of his lover. Another irony in this story is that Alan is looking for love but doesn’t realize that he will need a poison. The biggest irony is that Alan spent only a dollar for the love potion but in the end will need to spend five thousand dollars on the poison to get rid of his lover.

Ambiguity in The Sniper

The Irish Civil War was a very bad time when people were fighting brothers and other relatives. In “The Sniper” the main character is on a roof top sniping at someone across the street. The man gets hit and fakes his own death to fool the other man. He pulls it off, and the man across the street exposes himself for an open shot. The sniper hits him and kills him. The man is dead on the street and the sniper has an urge to see who it is. He rolls the man over and discovers it’s his brother. But in the story it is the civil war so whether it is his real brother or his figurative brother is unclear. This is a example of ambiguity because the story never explains if it is the snipers real brother, his friend that he considers a brother, or if O’Flaherty means that all men are brothers.

The recurring use of the words “Born in the U.S.A.”

The recurring use of the words “Born in the U.S.A.” ironically highlights how bad it can be to live in the U.S.A. For example, he says “born down in a dead man’s town, the first kick I took was when I hit the ground.” What he means is that he lives in a small town and he has been getting kicked around since he was basically born. “I had a brother at Khe Sahn, fighting off the Viet Cong, They’re still there, but he’s all gone.” Bruce is saying that his brother went to fight in Vietnam and got killed. Bruce says “He had a girl he loved in Saigon” Springsteen mean that his brother fell in love with a girl while fighting in the war but was killed before he could be with her. So by being born in the U.S.A. Bruce couldn’t get a job and had no choice but to go to war and his brother couldn’t be with the girl he loved because he got killed. So ironically being born in the U.S.A. isn't that great.

Characterization of Secret Life of Bees

Lily: “I lay in bed and thought about dying and going to be with my mother in paradise.” Pg. 3

Lily: “My hair was constantly going off in eleven wrong directions” Pg. 3

Lily: “My first and only memory of my mother was the day she died” Pg. 5

T. Ray: “’Goddamn it, Lily, this aint funny.’” Pg. 4

T. Ray: “’You wake me up again, Lily, and I’ll get out the Martha Whites, you hear me?’” Pg. 5

T. Ray: “I was peeled away by T. Ray” Pg. 7

Rosaleen: “Rosaleen knew less about fashion than T. Ray”

Rosaleen: “’ You don’t need to go to some high-falutin school to get charm.” Pg. 10

Rosaleen: “’ You’re charming enough,’” Pg.9

Topic Question

What is the name of the only lady in the house and what does she do?

Secret Life Of Bees Imagery: By Kevin Ceckowski

Sue Monk Kidd’s SLOB involves a young girl reaching out for stability in a difficult setting. In the beginning of the novel, Kidd uses imagery to give a clear view to the readers about what happens in the book: “At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracks of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high-pitched zzzzzz that hummed along my skin.” In this quote the author clearly writes about the bees swarming into the room and flying around. In the following quote Kidd explains how the bees sound like the static on a radio “I heard them tunneling through the walls of my bedroom, sounding like a radio tuned to static.” “She had a big round face and a body that sloped out from her neck like a pup tent” in this quote Kidd is describing Rosaleen. This novel shows a lot of visualization.

McCarthy’s Diction by: Kevin Ceckowski


All authors showcase their own style of diction. In the excerpt from Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God the author creates diction which is both special and hard to understand. Cormac’s diction is a little complicated. For example: “ever what it was”; when he writes this it is hard to understand what he is talking about. “These old boys I was with kept at me and kept at me”; when Cormac writes this understanding what he is writeing is complicated. McCarthy describes the main character: “ he just shoot directly he seen the feathers fly. You couldn’t tell it.” This sentence just dose not even make sense.The quotes above are the reason Cormac McCarthy’s diction does not make sense.