Poetry Ch. 7 POUI (1)

"And the father wrote right back, 'Please don't write such depressing letters.'" (846)

The poem APO 96225 by Larry Rottmann contains situational irony. The poem has situational irony because the soldier is trying to protect his mother. He does not want his mother to know the horrid details of what is really going on over seas. He tries to make her think that everything is fine and it is just time away from home, when in reality he is killing people everyday. The mother thinks that she wants to know exactly what is going on in Vietnam. Ironically, she is too overcome with the truth and gets upset. I think that the irony of the poem is important because it basically describes the attitude of the American public during the war. No one wanted to admit to or recognize what was going on in Vietnam. The irony's purpose is to show the difference in sentiments from one perspective to another. I liked this poem because I understood its theme and what it was trying to get across. Also, it was more of a story than random words put into stanzas.

Never Let Me Go: 19

" 'You speak to them. It's you they've come to speak to.'
'I suppose it is' " (255).

Once again, the author leaves readers in suspense going into chapter 22. Throughout the talk of deferrals, it has been implied that Madame was the person with the power. However, we are now confronted with the fact that it is not Madame but Miss Emily. The author has Madame let the children explain their reason for coming to her and their theories about the Gallery before Miss Emily emerges because he wanted to build up the suspense. The suspense is also effective because it throws yet another curve ball into this world that we keep learning more about. This is also and example of situational irony because the children and readers are led to believe that Madame created the Gallery to grant deferrals when, in reality, Miss Emily seems to be the one to grant deferrals. The suspense and situational irony work well together to produce a feeling of unknown going into the next chapter. They are both effective because readers are drawn into the action even more and are anxious to see what comes next.

Never Let Me Go: 4

"But usually with Miss Emily nothing too awful would come out of it" (44).

Chapter four contains an example of situational irony. Towards the beginning of the chapter, Kathy explains that all students were pretty scared of Miss Emily. She says that the students' hearts sank if they were somewhere they weren't supposed to be and saw Miss Emily coming because it was as if she had an "extra sense" and always knew where they were hiding. This is ironic because in the above quote, Kathy says that "nothing too awful would come out of it." Students wouldn't be yelled at or punished like they would if another teacher caught them. It is situational irony because people would expect that if the students are scared of Miss Emily and hearts sank when she caught them that it would be because she gave the harshest punishments. This is not the case at all. The only downfall of being caught by Miss Emily was that "you'd fallen in her estimation" (44). Readers wouldn't think that this would matter to teenagers; however, this irony further illustrates that these students are not your average teenagers. They are (in more ways than I think I understand right now) different. Normal teenagers could care less about what their teachers or other adults think about them as long as they have their friends. The students of Hailsham are different. They still value their friendships; however, they ironically fear being seen as someone who does not follow the rules more than the punishments for not following the rules. For this reason, Miss Emily who does not scream or take away privileges is more feared by the students than all the other guardians. The purpose of the author using situational irony was to explain the quirks of Miss Emily's character, as well as her effects on students. The situational irony is effective because it stresses another way in which these students are not average teenagers in a way that still fits in to the storyline and provides another anecdote about Kathy's time at Hailsham.