Stephen Crane’s World of Savage Irony

888 Words4 Pages
Last week Wednesday I had a meeting with my football coach about my status on the team and my previous starting position. We started to talk about my social life and other extracurricular activities. My coach then asked me how I was doing emotionally. I responded; “Well, I wish I could tell you that I was doing great, and that everything is going well. But the reality is that I am not doing well, and everything isn’t all right.” Our conversation ended with him giving me a hug and letting me know that everything was going to be ok. The meeting I had with my coach was a great example of irony in today’s world. Irony involves a difference or contrast between appearance and reality. I appeared to be feeling great and doing well, but the reality of the situation was that deep down inside I wasn’t ok. Stephen Crane, famous author and journalist, was known for his work of ironic expressions in his poetry. Crane was a master of irony and exceptionally influenced many readers with his work. Analyzing Crane’s poetry will help us understand the world of irony and his naturalistic view. Understanding the true meaning of irony is the first step. There are a lot of different interpretations of what irony actually defines. Irony exposes and underscores a contrast between these four phrases; what is and what seems to be, what is and what ought to be, what is and what one wishes to be, and finally what is and what one expects to be. Many of Crane’s poems deal with irony phrases like these. Crane’s ambition as a writer was to achieve personal honesty. His work showed vivid imagery in its characterizations of his writing style that caught many readers’ eye. There are three common types of irony in literature: Verbal irony, situational, and dramatic irony. Verbal irony occurs when people say the opposite of what they mean. This is perhaps the most common type of irony. In
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