Chauvinistic men don’t learn the mistake of overlooking seemingly unimportant Trifles. Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” – Yes, I know it’s not a short story.
Explain what the odds are of flipping a coin x number of times and coming up with the correct answer each time.Examine statistical anamolies to teach just how ridiculous this victory was.
#Short stories to write a textual analysis on generator#
It’s like the time you got a ‘B’ on your physics test after studying for hours and Donny Dumbbutt got an ‘A’ using a random number generator on the multiple choice and matching sections. Isaac Asimov’s “The Machine that Won the War” – The ultimate in situational irony as Earth defeats a technologically advanced alien civilization by using the simplest machine ever created - a coin. Here’s a bunch of stuff for teaching “The Story of an Hour.” The Department of Homeland Security frowns on such activity, so I continued my life as before. After reading “Story of an Hour,” I started feeling paranoid and plotted to derail a train I was supposed to be on in order to test my wife. All this takes place in an hour (you may have figured that out from the title). Then her husband’s alive, which kills her. Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” – First her husband’s dead, which makes her sad but happy. Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” – Join one of literature’s most unlikeable characters as she ruins her life in a most ironic way. Here’s a chart: Analyzing Irony in Literature Literature Example: In Horton Hears a Who, we know that Horton really is talking to little people on a bubble, but everyone else thinks he’s crazy.Everyone else, except Friar Lawrence, thinks she is dead. Romeo and Juliet Example: We know Juliet has taken a sleeping potion.When the audience knows things the characters do not Because Prometheus doesn’t think Zeus is wise, it’s actually an insult.ĭramatic Irony.
Literary Example: Prometheus says to Zeus, “You are as kind as you are wise.” Zeus thinks it’s a compliment.A contrast between what is said and what is actually meant Historical Example: Surrendering guards at the Bastille still managed to kill 98 citizens.Example from “The Ransom of Red Chief.” A boy is kidnapped, but instead of the kidnappers demanding money for the kid’s return, the parents demand money to take him back.When one’s efforts produces the opposite results of what was expected The difference between what someone would reasonably expect to happen and what actually does happen. General Irony Definitionsįirst things first: Teach these basic definitions for irony. One time I got so enthralled with teaching irony in literature that I stayed up all night writing irony lesson plans, all of which had the same purpose: to convince students that everything in life is ironic (except for things in that song by Alanis Morissette, which is ironic).Īfter not sleeping for three days and accidentally stapling my hand to a bulletin board, I decided the best way to teach irony in literature is to use the following short stories. Help students understand irony in literature with these short stories. Irony can be a hard concept for students to grasp, even when every other word out of their mouth is sarcastic (yes, that’s ironic).