Free Essay Irony in Black Boy

HustlasAmbitions · Uploaded by **HustlasAmbitions** on Dec 30, 2005

Irony in Black Boy

Five examples of irony in the novel Black Boy are; situational irony, romantic irony, irony of fate, dramatic irony, and verbal irony. Here are some examples from the book that explain each type of irony.

Verbal Irony is when you say something and mean something else, here is a quote from the novel Black Boy that represent this �The scrawny kitten lingered, brushing itself against our legs, and meowing plaintively. �Kill that damn thing� my father exploded� �D anything but get it away from here. This is a prime example of situational irony because after that quote was made Richard

(Who is the momma�s daddy son) Kills the cat, and when his father made that statement he was not serious (when he said kill the cat) he just wanted the cat to leave. When you say something and mean something else. {Page: 11{1st Paragraph}

Situational irony is when you expect one thing and something else happens such as this situation. Richard doesn�t believe in God and his granny is very religious and sense Richard doesn�t believe in God his grandma get real mad and so Richard tells her �You see Granny, if I ever saw an angel like Jacob did, then I would believe�

So in saying that Richard�s grandma gets real happy and tells the whole church that Richard has seen in angel. So Richard expected to get his grandma off his back by telling her that if I seen an angel then I would believe he expected her to be cool about it, but something else happened. 117{2nd Paragraph}

Romantic Irony is when you treat something serious and you make light of it such as this quote �but don�t you wanna save your soul� �Have you tried to feel God?�. In this passage Richard is being confronted by one of his friends about his religion in which I feel (is a serious matter) and Richard replies with words such as �I never feel God, I tell you. It�s no use� or �I don�t wont to hurt God�s feelings to� and in saying that he is representing Romantic Irony because he�s taking something serious like religion and he is making light of it by trying to avoid it. {Page: 114{2nd Paragraph}

Irony Of Fate is when a person expectation is determined by chance, fate, or the gods.

When Richard is employed as a postal clerk, where he meets an Irish fellow whom he can relate to he is eventually introduced into a literary circle where the members are in the Communist Party and if it wasn�t for fate he would had got that job to meet that guy in which that led to Richard joining the John Reed Club (a Communist organization for the arts) to learn and write his book. {Chapter 7}

Five examples of imagery are represented in these quotes from the novel

�There was the slow, fresh, saliva-stimulating smell of cooking cotton seeds�

�There was the breathlessly anxious fun of chasing and catching flitting fireflies on drowsy summer nights.

�There was the excitement of fishing in muddy country creeks with my grandpa in cloudy days�

�There was the drenching hospitality in the pervading smell of sweet magnolias�

�There was the all-night ache in my stomach after I had climbed a neighbor�s tree and eaten stolen, unripe peaches�

�There were the long, slow, drowsy days and night of drizzling rain�

Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. Here is a quote from the novel that exhibits my thesis

�There was the slow, fresh, saliva-stimulating smell of cooking cotton seeds�.

All the words have the same consonant.

Onomatopoeia is the formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions. Such as this