IronyIrony means the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning. Irony does exist in my life, almost everyday. For an example, the way me and my friends speak is way different than how my mother or other adults may speak. Therefore, they won't understand as much as if I were talking to a friend. We mean the same things, it's just in a different way of saying it. That's how irony exists in my life. Another way of showing irony is in the poem "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson. In this poem it is telling us about a character named Richard Cory. Cory, seemed like a happy gentleman. He was polite and with lots of money. But there was more to his story. Behind closed doors he was lonely and unhappy. That is what caused him to put a bullet through his head that one calm summer night. The poem showed how nice Richard was and how he had all this money but it never actually said he was happy. This shows irony because it's showing an expected result but not the actual result. This kind of irony is "irony of situation". In the short story of "The Gift Of The Magi" By O Henry shows a dramatic type of irony. The story tells how a married couple both go out their way to get each other gifts for Christmas. The wife buys her husband a chain to match his watch, and the husband buys his wife clips and other accessories for her hair. Neither of them have enough money so they sell one of their personal belongings to later find out that it was unnecessary. Della ,the wife, sold her hair , and Jim ,the husband, sold his watch. So their gifts for one another were no longer useful. They realized that they didn't need to get each other anything, when all they really needed was each other's love and care. This shows irony because they both went for the material things when they knew love is all they really needed. "The House That Slaves Built" was very ironic. It was ironic because The White House was once a place where blacks were not allowed. Yet, it was built by African Americans and visited by many too. Also, for the first time ever the President of the United States Barack Obama is now African American. Today blacks are welcomed with open arms into the White House. There is no longer a discrimination against colored people , when one time in US history people would've never thought this day would actually come. This cartoon shows a psychic talking to the police about a crime scene that happened in front of her store. The sign in front of the store says that Madame Jasmine sees all , but when the cops ask her about what happened she tells them she doesn't know or didn't see anything. This is ironic because she's supposed to see what happens in the future. She didn't see nothing coming. Madame Jasmine doesn't know absolutely anything that happened, what are psychic for ? Irony is all around us. In one of the pictures above with the psychic shows a perfect example of irony. Anyone would think a psychic would see anything coming. Unfortunately in this picture it's the opposite. The police asked questions about what happened right in front Madame Jasmine's store, and she had no idea what they were talking about. kvanderburg16@aol.com © kimberly vanderburg 2011