Irony Essay

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Irony Essay

• How to Begin

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The Prompt

• Essay prompt How does irony create excitement in
  literature?
• All essays begin with some kind of question or
  prompt from the teacher. The goal is to answer
  the prompt in the essay.
• What needs to be proven in this essay?

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The Thesis Statement

• Essay prompt How does irony create excitement in
  literature?
• Q How do you create a thesis statement out of an
  essay prompt?
• A One strategy is to turn the essay prompt into
  your thesis by twisting the question into a
  statement.

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Sample Thesis Stmts.

• The literary device irony can cause excitement in
  the reader of literature.
• Authors use irony to add to the excitement of a
  story in literature.
• Authors of literature add excitement to a
  readers experience using irony.
• When reading literature, the excitement level is
  enhanced through an authors use of irony.
• Through the use of irony, an author of literature
  can create excitement in the reader.

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A Good Thesis

• No matter your topic sentence, you should aim to
  include these items
• The word irony
• The word excitement
• The phrase literary device
• The idea that the author is using irony to
  accomplish something
• The idea that the reader is the one experiencing
  excitement
• Compose TWO possible thesis statements now

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Excitement? Come on

• In this essay, excitement doesnt necessarily
  mean that youre happy and jumping out of your
  seat. Excitement can also mean a heightened
  emotion, regardless of what the emotion is. So
  when youre surprised that Rainsford jumps out
  from behind the curtain, and you know hes going
  to face off with Zaroff, the tension and
  excitement level rise. In other words, the
  situational irony causes your reading experience
  to become more intensified due to your emotional
  response to the story. That emotional
  intensification is excitement.

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Selecting Stories to Use

• In the homework, you wrote about four cases of
  irony. Now you must choose the two cases you
  understand best to include in your essay.
• Read over your four explanations and select the
  two you think you understand best.

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Topic Sentences

• Topic sentences control the content of the
  paragraphs. This essay will contain two body
  paragraphs with the general content of
• Story 1 with irony, and how the irony works to
  enhance excitement
• Story 2 with irony, and how the story works to
  enhance excitement

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Topic Sentences, contd.

• In an essay, topic sentences not only control the
  content of paragraphs, they also must support the
  overall thesis statement. This is illustrated
  with examples on the next slide.

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Thesis/Topic Sentence Relationship

• Thesis Through the use of irony, an author of
  literature can create excitement in the reader.
• Now the proof must be given from actual stories
  to show that excitement can be enhanced.
• Topic sentences
• Guy de Maupassant, in his story The Necklace,
  uses situational irony to enhance the intensity
  of emotion experienced by the reader.
• In the story The Possibility of Evil by Shirley
  Jackson, the author employs dramatic irony to
  heighten the tension level in the reader.

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Topic Sentences, contd.

• Topic sentences in this essay will contain these
  elements
• Author name
• Story title
• The claim that the use of irony in the story
  heightens the readers excitement or intensifies
  the readers emotions

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Write Two Topic Sentences

• Further examples

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Using Your Homework

• Each body paragraph will have this general
  outline
• Topic sentence
• RDF in the form of summary from the story (3 on
  your homework)
• E in the form of explanation (4 on your homework)

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Adding the RDF

• Choose one of the topic sentences you wrote and
  find the questions that correspond to it on your
  irony homework.
• Transfer your summary (question 3) from the
  homework to the position underneath your topic
  sentence.
• Because your original summary of the part of the
  story where irony appears is between 2 and 3
  sentences long, your paragraph will already have
  four sentences when you add the summary to your
  topic sentence!

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Example TS gt RDF

• TS Guy de Maupassant, in his story The
  Necklace, uses situational irony to enhance the
  intensity of emotion experienced by the reader.
• RDF Near the end of the story, Mme. Loisel comes
  across Mme. Forestier in a park. Because the
  Loisels are now poor due to years repaying the
  debts associated with replacing Mme Forestiers
  necklace, Mme. Loisel decides to reveal the
  truth the necklace returned to Mme. Forestier
  was not the original. When Mme. Loisel reveals
  that she and her husband are now poor because of
  their efforts to replace the lost original, Mme.
  Forestier reveals that the original, in fact, was
  not made of genuine stones.

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Adding the E Explanation

• Question 4 on your homework explains the irony
  in the story. It is therefore an E
• At this point, you can transfer your answer to
  question 4 to the position just under where you
  finished the RDF.

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Sample E Explanation

• The situational irony occurs in the difference
  between what the reader expects and what is
  revealed in the final scene. No indication is
  ever given that the original necklace is a fake,
  so the reader believes what the Loisels believe
  it is genuine. The reader sees the Loisels
  sacrifice their lives to repay the debts of the
  replacement necklace, so when the necklace is
  finally paid off, we believe the relief was worth
  all the effort. However, when Mme. Forestier
  reveals that the original was a fake, we realize
  that all of the work we thought was valuable is
  in fact worthless. The truth is that the Loisels
  worked to pay off a fake.

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The Final Key Ingredient

• You explained the irony, but you have to make it
  clear how this irony affects the readers
  emotions.
• The key You must state clearly whether the irony
  caused an unexpected surprise or created
  increased tension.

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Sample Key Ingredient

• The surprise from Mme. Forestier at the end
  causes the reader to feel sudden shock. The
  readers relief that they are not in the Loisels
  shoes is an intensified emotional response to the
  story. The surprise caused by the irony brings
  about that increased excitement.

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Final Tally of Sentences

• Topic sentence 1
• RDF (summary) at least 2
• E (explanation) at least 3
• Final Key at least 1
• Minimum total per paragraph 7