Analysis Of Love On The Rocks: An Ironic Rite Of Passage

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Michael Blasl Introduction to Analytical Writing 10:25-11:20 October 8th 2009 Love on the Rocks: An Ironic Rite of Passage In both John Updike’s “A&P” and Alice Munro’s “How I Met My Husband” the authors use the literary devices of irony and theme in their stories. In the following essay, this writer will analyze and compare both characters rite of passage, and how the use of irony leads them towards their completion of that rite. First, Sammy’s naïve and inexperienced persona cause him to make several poor choices such as quitting his job and force him to see how his actions can have very serious consequences. Second, this writer will compare his rite of passage to that of Edie’s.…show more content…
While he feels that speaking out in defense of the girls with the underlying hope that they will hear him and be waiting outside for him after he quits, it is both immature, naïve, and will have a negative impact on his future. Sammy’s immaturity and desire to gain the attention of the girls clouds his judgment, in a sense blinding him of seeing the blatant trouble that awaits him if he quits his job and confronts his boss. His innocence is another factor that effects his judgment in the store. His growing desire for the girls grows more as he fawns over their every move, This desire, coupled with his lack of experience with women clouds his judgment and makes them into something he really has no proof that they are. A less innocent/ naive individual would have seen the situation in a different light and come to a more intelligent decision rather than making a rash choice that only someone as inexperienced as Sammy would do. Each way, all of these determining factors play parts in Sammy’s irrational choice to quit his job and force him to see and grow by realizing that life is going to be harder now and that it was his actions which have caused it to be…show more content…
While leading the reader on to believe that Edie is going to end up with Chris Watters in the end or at some point in her life, and given the ominous title of the story itself, Munro instead saves Edie’s encounter with her future husband until the very end of the story. In this way Munro was able to use both dramatic and situational irony effectively. For the better part of the relationship with each other there is a sense of attraction between the main character of Edie and that of the pilot Chris Watters, with their sneaky encounters and the seductive behavior that he exhibits around her there is nothing left to assume but that they will end up with one another by the end of the story. The mailman isn’t even known to exist until the final page, his exclusion from the story until the very end allows the reader to get bogged down thinking Edie and Chris will end up together, since they were the only developed relationship throughout it’s telling. Irony is worked into the conclusion in two ways, both situational irony and dramatic irony. The situational irony occurs because it is only Edie’s yearning for Chris’s letter that brings her out to meet the mailman on a daily basis allowing them to build some semblance of a relationship. Instead of her being in the wrong place at the

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