Literary Analysis of All Quiet on the Western

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Irony

The following slides contain one of the following types of irony. As you view the slides, decide which type of irony you think is being used in the slide.

Dramatic Irony: The reader or audience knows something the character does not. Ex. In the play Romeo and Juliet, upon finding Juliet in a drugged sleep he kills

himself believing her to be dead (we know that she is not), he then kills himself. Upon wakening Juliet finds Romeo dead next to her and proceeds to then kill herself

Verbal Irony: The writer or speaker says one thing, but really means something completely different. The statement takes on a double meaning (often referred to as sarcasm or being sarcastic)

Ex. So tonight we have homework? That is awesome, I love doing homework!

Situational Irony: What is expected to happen is the opposite of what occurs. Ex. In the short story “Lamb to the Slaughter”, we are introduced to Mary, a quiet,

fairly obedient 1950’s housewife. We then have the husband telling her that he is leaving her and we assume he is going to do something bad to her yet it is Mary who ends up being the murderer.

Irony 1 What type of irony? Explain.

Irony 2 What type of irony? Explain.

Irony 3 What type of irony? Explain.

Irony 4 What type of irony? Explain.

Irony 5 What type of irony? Explain.

Irony 6 What type of irony? Explain.

Irony 7 What type of irony? Explain.

Irony 8 What type of irony? Explain.

Irony 9 What type of irony? Explain.

Irony 10 What type of irony? Explain.

Life’s True Ironies:

The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later they were both eaten by a killer whale.

A psychology student in New York rented out her spare room to a carpenter in order to nag him constantly and study his reactions. After weeks of needling, he snapped and beat her repeatedly with an axe, leaving her mentally handicapped.

In 1992, Frank Perkins of Los Angeles made an attempt on the world flagpole-sitting record. Suffering from the flu, he came down eight hours short of the 400-day record, to find that his sponsor had gone bankrupt, his girlfriend had left him and his phone and electricity had been cut off.

Life’s True Ironies: A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen, shaking frantically

with what looked like a wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intending to jolt him away from the deadly current, she whacked him with a handy plank of wood by the back door, breaking his arm in two places. Till that moment he had been happily listening to his Walkman.

Two animal rights activists were protesting the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn. Suddenly the pigs, all two thousand of them, escaped through a broken fence and stampeded, trampling the two hapless protesters to death.

Iraqi terrorist Khay Rahnajet didn't pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with "return to sender" stamped on it. Forgetting it was the bomb, he opened it and was blown to bits.

All Quiet on the Western Front Discussion questions:

a. Almost the entire novel is written in the first person- from Paul’s point of view. How does that affect what you see and feel about the war?

b. What advantage does the first person point of view provide?

c. What disadvantage does the first person point of view create?

d. The last two paragraphs of the novel are written in the third person. What effect does third person narration at the end of this novel have on you?