Irony In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

In constructing irony the reader sees it as

After the boys become friends Reuven showed kindness to Danny by listening to him and his struggles, talking to him, and spending time with him. Reuven proves a true and compassionate

Irony is a figure of speech in which a contradiction is made between what is expected and what actually happens. Ray Bradbury conveys his message on the importance of reading and thinking through many examples of dramatic irony in the story. He takes the good things in our society and flips them around to make them terrible all to prove a point. Bradbury uses many cases of irony such as the Mechanical Hound, the river, and the firemen. All of these items gather into the main idea of why reading and thinking should be very important to us.

Belief remains so important to the making of Mr. Saunders due to his job as a tzaddik and because of his troubling life. As a tzaddik, Reb is looked up to as a messenger from God and this means he must believe in God more than any other and show true humbleness before God. Danny describes his father’s role as, “kind of a messenger of God, a bridge between his followers and God” (119). Reb must also have had great belief throughout his childhood in Russia, when he inherited his role as tzaddik from his father and he did not know what to do. He trusted God to lead him and empower him, so he brought his followers to America, not knowing how others would treat them.

Reuven notices that Danny is very different from whom he had expected him to be. As the son of Reb Saunders, Danny shows many signs of having an intellectual passion, however he admits that studying just the Talmud is not enough and that his school life is quite boring. He feels that the teachers are too afraid of his father to challenge him, thus, he reads many books as a replacement for experiencing the challenges and excitement that he could never achieve at school. Rather than judging Danny by his appearance or position, Reuven uses this opportunity to actually listen to him, as a result, he was able to learn many things about his new friend. Prior to the novel, the same reoccurring theme of friendship seem to play an important role in

He wants Danny to become a Tsaddik when he becomes of age. When Danny befriends Reuven, a non-Hasid, he gets a glimpse into a different world. When Danny spends time with Reuven, he is able to relax a little bit and does not have to constantly worry about studying and his religion’s incomparable number of laws. Their friendship lets Danny almost ‘switch’ worlds and learn about different things he would not normally be able to learn about, like Freud. Danny and Reuven’s friendship lets Danny relax and glimpse into a different

From the time of Danny's youth, Reb recognizes his son's genius and lack of soul, at which point he makes the painful decision to raise his son in silence. Reb explains, "I did not want to drive my son away from God, but I did not want him to grow up a mind without a soul" (285). He sacrifices his own joy to teach his son about the suffering in the world and how to look into himself for strength. The Jewish community expects the eldest son, Danny, to inherit his father's position as tzaddik; however, Reb gives Danny his blessing to study and become a psychologist. Additionally, in front of the church, Reb announces his support of Danny's studies, which shocks many.

In “The Chosen,” Chaim Potok uses the relationship between Danny and Reuven to show the social and political problems that they dealt with. Reuven didn’t fully understand the Hasidic view on things; he asked his dad, Mr. Malter, many questions, that of which his dad knew most or just gave his opinions. Reuven was drug into Danny’s father, Reb Saunders’s, synagogue multiple times, where he learned more about the Talmud and the history behind the Hasidic religion. Reb Saunders’s was considered a tzaddik, by which everyone looked upon him as a god, but a tzaddik is just a pious leader that is a messenger between God and man. Also, with Reb Saunders being a tzaddik, he will have to pass down the role to his son, Danny.

Irony is the most powerful literary device used in the short story, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. First, a good example of irony in the story is “They were burdened with sashweights sand bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in.” (P,2 Line, 11-13) This quote is Ironic as it tells how this system was designed to hide beauty, yet beauty was still shown by the amount of restraints on the person. Second, another good example of irony is, “The spectacles were intended to make him not only half-blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.

Dramatic irony is usually an over the top, tragic form of irony. Both Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” are great examples of an ironic situation. Every expresses the common theme in their own way. Although both of these literally pieces provide us with the theme of irony, Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" gives the reader a sense of suspense with the irony that proves to be more effective. Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" emphasizes on how a man’s thoughts and perception can affect oneself and other’s lives.

Genuine friendships are excellent things to have. It’s nice to have somebody to confide in when you don’t know where to turn. In The Chosen, Reuven states that he “didn’t mean to offend you [Danny] or anything, I just want to be honest.’ ‘I want you to be honest’ Danny said.” (Page 119)

In the text, Irony is used to really create a lot of the conflicts in the

The Ironic Truth Irony is a complex and important element of literature that can help discover hidden perspectives within characters or hide the truth in plain sight. The story by Edgar Allen Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado” is a great example the dark ironic twist that happen in the story. The main character, Montresor, is hell-bent on getting his revenge on the man who shamed him, Fortunato. The verbal and dramatic irony that is being used in the story “The Cask of Amontillado” helps hide the true intentions that Montresor has planned for Fortunato. Verbal irony happens when one character says one thing but actually means something completely different.

Irony is often used in literature to illustrate certain situations to the audience. In some pieces of literature that might be pointing out an unjust system, in others that might be to add a comedic effect, but whatever situation the author wants to illustrate, irony is very beneficial. Through small and witty, one-liners, or a bigger dramatic irony situation contrasting two very different situations, irony can be very beneficial for the reader to understand the story. Both “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins have a corrupt dystopian society. Through the use of irony, the author can portray the corruptness to the audience.

Irony is a technique that involves surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions or contrasts ( Glossary... Pg 1). The greatest example of irony happens when it turns out Armand is the one that comes from black heritage. He learns this when he “finds a letter from his mom to his father explaining how he is black” turning the main plot of this story around (Chopin... Pg 5)