Irony

       Irony is the explanation of something or the expression of something using words that could somehow contradict each other, it could be sarcastic as well. Irony is always part of everyone's life without us noticing it. My whole life I've hated drawing, art, creative things in general; I always thought they were useless and a waste of my time. I would always tell my art teachers that drawing and art was not going to pay my bills. Now that I'm about to attend college I decided that I want to become a Fashion Designer, and to my surprise sketching plays a huge role in my career and even my college acceptance, since I have to make a portfolio full of neatly done high fashion sketches. Who would have thought that I was going to need drawing so badly in my life and that it will pay my bills.  Irony is also everywhere I look like in TV, educational books, ads, or the subway. An example of irony could also be the book "Animal Farm" by George Orwell. In this book the animals got tired of the abuse from humans and decided to get together and overthrow the humans. After they succeeded and got their freedom, they started acting like humans and created their own leaders, which would abuse the inferior animals. The irony of the book is that animals fought humans for their freedom and respect, however they end up doing the same to themselves.  Another example common in subways is that for years people have been riding the train, and before when people did not have as much freedom as now, man would always get up and give their seat for a woman, whether she was young or not. Now, that we are all fully free and liberated we have to stand, and watch man sit and not offer the seat whether we old, pregnant or  full of bags.

                     An example of irony in a poem is "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson, it describes how ironic a man's life is and people's desire to be him without knowing how miserable he was deep inside. Richard Cory was a man respected by his community, he was very educated and also spoke very well, he carried himself in a respectful way to other, and he was also very wealthy. He was also always dressed very nice, very clean and looked almost perfect. Whenever his neighbors would see him they would greet him with respect and want to be him, they wanted to look like him, dress like him and have what he had. "He was a gentleman from sole to crown". This line from the poem shows how he fulfilled everything a gentleman is to people's eyes. "In fine, we thought he was everything". The line above shows how everyone in his community thought he was perfect, and had everything they could ever want, they badly wanted to be like him and have his life. "Went home and put a bullet through his head". The line above was the last line of the poem, Richard Cory killed himself. The poem completely shocked me because by the way Richard Cory was described I thought he was immensely happy and would not want anything more in his life. However he obviously had his own issues maybe he was lonely or guilty for something and just decided to escape his sadness, loneliness, issues and took away his life. The irony of this poem is, everyone in the community envied Richard because he was rich, handsome, educated, well dressed; while everyone in the community was part of the hard working class, they barely ate meat and probably were far from well of as Richard. While everyone was wishing to have all the luxury this man had they had the most valuable thing, what this wealthy man was craving for; love, a family, happiness. Sometimes people need to understand that wealth is not going to bring happiness in life, sometimes the smallest things in life is what is going to make us happy.

                      The short story "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl, is another example of irony.  Mary Maloney was the wife of a detective, she always craved for his attention and wanted to make him happy. One  night she kept anxiously waiting for him, she always did; she loved him so much.That night he told her some shocking news, she ignored them and insisted on serving him supper, he kept saying no to her. At the end Mary grabbed a leg of lamb she was planning to cook for supper since her husband loved it, and threw to the back of his neck while he tried to leave for the night. He was dead, she had killed her husband with the leg of lamb. When she called the police and informed the "murder", she kept her attitude calm. She lied and said she had left to the grocery to get some vegetables to make with the lamb, and then she just fund her husband dead. The detectives that were in charge of the case didn't suspect she had done it, they were looking for the killer. They knew Patrick was killed with a blunt heavy weapon that hit his neck; they looked all over the house for the weapon. After a while Mary offered the detectives to have some of the lamb she was cooking, she claimed she couldn't eat it since after everything she had lost her appetite. After a while all the detectives were eating the lamb, how ironic they were eating their evidence. They were working so hard to find the murder weapon, and it was right in front of them; they were eating it.


                  The article "The House that Slaves Built", by Gardiner Harris, shows irony in history. 200 years ago black people weren't allowed in the White House, they were still slaves, and if they lived in the White House they were there as servants, now Barack Obama is the President of the United States and lives there with his family. This article shows two main ironies. First, slaves built this house, like the title says. They worked hard and built it all by themselves, there wasn't any white workers at the time doing that type of work. Instead of them being credited for the amazing work they did, they were looked down to and kept as slaves. The second irony is that these people that believed in having slaves fought so hard in keeping them away from either their dinner table, even the White House. For example, former President Franklin D. Roosevelt's wife Eleanor, was criticized many times for openly inviting blacks in her many social events at the White House. Certain people couldn't tolerate the thought of a black person being in the White House, and were upset that this was allowed. The irony of this is that after 200 years, now the person in power and control of the whole country and that lives in the White House is a black person, Barack Obama.


                After reading the article "Is it ironic that so many don't understand irony"?, I realized how many things we believe to be ironic aren't ironic. Just because something is out of place, and have some type of similarity and not be the same doesn't make an irony. This article talks about how the author has a co worker that is very educated graduated from college, and a freelance writer, and didn't know what irony is. The most ironic part about it is not just the fact that she's using irony in a wrong way; but that she is a writer and doesn't even know this. Irony is very common in the English language and a writer is expected to know what it means and even write about it. In the article several examples have been giving on statements whether they are ironic or not. For example someone posted "Is it ironic that I posted how boring and useless Facebook is on Facebook"? I found this myself extremely ironic however, 93% of writers found it not ironic. The reason why this statement is ironic is because, if Faceboook is so useless and boring; why are you being entertained by posting something on the website, and most of all getting people's attention.

The cartoon above is an example of irony. The dog is drinking from the toilet, which is dirty and has many bacterias and claims he doesn't share his water since he don't know where the other dog's mouth has been. I mean if the dog is going to be so cautious about the other dog's germs since he doesn't know where his mouth has been, why is he drinking from the toilet?

      The lyrics of the song "Ironic", by Alanis Morissette are an example of irony. The whole song talks about many ironies in life, and situations that happen to people unexpectedly. For example the first irony is, "An old man turned ninety-eight/He won the lottery and died the next day". These two lines express how ironic this man's life was, he won the lottery a day before he died; he probably played it his whole life and got it for no reason he didn't even get to enjoy it. Another example is, "A no smoking sign on your cigarette break". This line is ironic because a smoker would wait anxiously for their cigarette break, and to find out that is prohibited to smoke, it's pretty ironic. The last irony example is, "A traffic jam when you are already late". This is ironic if you are already late instead of finding ways that are going to make your lateness worst you want to find ways on how to save time, and get to wherever you want to get as fast as possible. A traffic jam stops you since your stuck and have no way out but stay in traffic. Another example of irony is the Social Network video, the young lady is talking about how she read an article on how older people are very antisocial, and how her parents only have 19 friends on Facebook, while she has more than a 100. The irony of this video is while she is at home being "social" stuck using a computer with her internet friends her parents are outside having fun with actual friends doing many activities. So instead the antisocial ones are the young people not to older.

              Overall, irony is in everyone's life without it being noticed. Something ironic could be a phrase, someone's actions, a video, a song, or even an accident. Irony is even part of my life, I tend to find myself contradicting myself plenty of times a day with the things I say, which end up being ironic. The articles listed above are several examples of different types of irony, from the "Richard Cory" poem. Him being so wanted and envied by everyone in his neighborhood and then him killing himself.

Metaphor

   A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word is used as a comparison to an object or another word indirectly. For example "my hand hurts so much I think is going to become little pieces and break from my body." This is a metaphor because it explains the pain my hand is feeling and it also compares it to small pieces breaking since the pain feels that way. There are several types of metaphors like a simile, personification, anthropomorphism, hyperbole, parable and analogy. A simile is the comparison between two things that aren't the same using "like or as." For example, "the bird is as tiny as my hand." This is a simile because I'm comparing the bird's size to my small hand using like or as. A personification is giving life to an object or non living thing. For example "my best friend Ipad." This is an example of a personification since the Ipad is a non living object and I'm comparing it to a living thing by saying it is my best friend. An anthropomorphism is the use of God or Gods in a human form relating to emotional feelings. For example"God talks back to me every night, he says he is happy with my actions." A hyperbole is the comparison or explanation of a statement using exaggeration; like "By the time this bus gets here I had already graduated with my PhD". This is an example of a hyperbole because no matter how late the bus comes it would never be as long as years in college.  A parable is a story used to illustrate a moral lesson; like the stories told in the Bible. A famous parable is the "Whistle" by Benjamin Franklin; Benjamin had paid too much money on a whistle that wasn't worth much he learns a lesson for life to not spend too much money on unnecessary things. A fable is similar to the parable but instead of using humans as an example animals are being used to give out a moral lesson; an example could be children books. Pinocchio is a perfect example, whenever Pinocchio lied his nose would grow and everyone would know he was lying; like that Pinocchio learned to stop lying.  An analogy is the comparison between the similarities of two things; like "let's talk about the analogies of the "Iphone and Blackberrys". Iphones and Blackberry phones are the examples because they are both smart phones they have similar qualities like high internet quality and many apps, but they also have huge differences like body texture.

       The poem "Creativity" its an example of a hyperbole it uses exaggeration to describe a tree branch. "It moves and it is dancing." This line shows how the author says the branch is dancing using the hyperbole to describe how the wind is moving the branch and it looks like its dancing. This line is also an example of Personification, the author is giving life to this branch by saying is dancing. "It writes its story/and the ink/is living light." This line shows the example of a metaphor and personification as well. It personifies the branch giving it life making it probably human and saying could write; it also compares indirectly the ink being used to write to living life. The poem "Peace" it's also an example of hyperbole and personification. "The wind is now/a roaring, smashing/monster of destruction," These lines show the author is giving life to the wind by saying its a monster, that being an example of personification. It also gives an example of hyperbole by being so dramatically described, for example the author said its a monster roaring smashing when in reality its just simple wind.
           The elephant on the picture illustration called "Hard Times" gives out plenty of examples of similes, blind men are touching the elephant and are explaining the elephants body parts to the hard times they are going through life. "An elephant is like an empty oil pipeline." This simile is talking about the trunk of the elephant, is comparing its emptiness to the lack of oil resources in the world and the conflicts to get the oil itself. Another example is:" An elephant is like a stack of foreclosure notices". This line compares the elephant to papers taking away your home because the economy is so bad. "An elephant is like a repossessed S.U.V. ", This quote compares he elephant to a car that has been taken away from the bank from the original owner since the owner couldn't keep up with the payments, the quote specifically says an s.u.v. since they are big like elephants. "An elephant is like a tree killed by Global Warming". The author compares the leg of the elephant to a lifeless tree killed by pollution and Global Warming. "An elephant is like a disconnected phone line". The author compares the elephant's tail to a plain dead phone line that has been disconnected.

In the poem "Dinnertime Chorus" shows personification in the line: "The teapot sang as the water boiled". It also shows it in the line where it says:"As the oil danced in a pan." These two lines show examples of Personification by the author giving human done tasks to these non living items. A teapot can't sing neither can the oil dance that's why is a personification.The fable "The Ant and the Grasshopper" is an example of a metaphor by comparing real life issues to a story with a moral value. The moral of the fable is:"It is best to prepare for days of necessity." The fable talks about an Ant that always worried about saving food for the winter, (when there wasn't variety in food)while the Grasshopper just kept playing around and singing. When the winter came the Ant was fine at home enjoying the food while the Grasshopper was starving with nothing to eat. This fable is related to students while some students don't focus in school and get prepared for heir future they become drop outs and then they might not find jobs; while the ones that finish their careers will have good paying jobs and enough money to support themselves. The poem "Hope is that thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson gives out examples of metaphors as well. "Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul,And sings the tune without the word."  These lines show how the author is using metaphors and hyperbole by comparing the hope to a bird. The author is saying that hope is always with us singing inside of us with out out loud words, just like a bird, this a hyperbole because birds can't literally be your source of hope only metaphorically."I've heard it in the chillest land,/And on the strangest sea;/Yet, never, in extremity,/It asked a crumb of me."These lines are also examples of metaphors and hyperbole and even parable. The author is saying this bird called hope is with you in the coldest days in the strangest seas and never asks for a crumb; showing how your inner hope is always with you at the hardest times, when no one is there your hope is there and is  not even asking for anything back. The poem "The Stone" is an example of Personification. "How happy is the little stone/That rambles in the road alone." These two lines show how the stone is given life by the author and explains and also compares it to this independent individual. The poem "l(a/le/af/fa/ll/s)/one/l/iness/e/e/cummings" is an example as well of a metaphor. The poem is presented in two letters each column, each column is falling down making it very hard to understand specially because the spelling and grammar is not correct. Once the poem is writing down in a vertical way it is clear what is meant to say: a leaf falls loneliness is coming. Not only is a leaf fallinga metaphor for loneliness arriving since the death of something which would be the leaf can create some type of emptiness, but the way the words are presented are also falling down making it more clear and giving some type of graphic illustration. another way this poem can be interpreted is that when leaves fall is because the fall is at its highest point and is introducing the cold winter, which brings loneliness and creates emptines in some people's heart, some poeple don't like to come out in the cold or if you don't have people to share your winter with you'll feel really lonely and sad.

         Overall, metaphors are a part of people's everyday life, they are everywhere even when you don't notice. A metaphor can give out life to a sentence by a comparison to the least compareable things. Metaphors are really important and are also important to understand, similes make the comparison easy and clear just simply using like or as, personification makes quite more fun by giving life to non living things to make a point through a comparison, anthromorphism is used in a comparison between myths and gods, hyperboles are people's favorite we compare something to something extremely exaggerated and unreal, parables are usually biblical it illustrates a message using humans, fables in the other hand are stories that carry out a moral and use animals as characters, and last an analogy is the comparison between two words that are in the same category or have plenty of things in common. Metaphors are a part of my life, every single day, my life itself is a metaphor. I believe my life is a roller coaster; one day im up everything is perfect, my chin is up as high as a ceiling and another day I'm down just like the leaves in the fall. My life goes up and down quickly and unexpectedly like a rollercoaster, I have to be prepared because I know that when I'm high up I will eventually come all the way down.