Stylistic Prose Techniques In Cry, The Beloved Country By Alan Paton

In Cry, the Beloved Country, the city of Johannesburg enables Gertrude’s desires to control her life, yet the desires that govern her are shamefully careless. Before Gertrude left Ndosheni, she had been surrounded by villagers who essentially knew many or all of their community’s people, including her. With the fear that several people would know of or observe her actions, Gertrude was encouraged to act upon the ethical desires widely accepted by her people. On the other hand, Johannesburg has little to no sense of community—being a heavily populated city and the majority of its inhabitants strangers to one another—which allows Gertrude to pursue the amoral desires within her, and for them to occur unnoticed by relatives. When Stephen Kumalo, her brother, finally receives word of Gertrude’s illness, he leaves for Johannesburg and finds her in a shabby, dirty house, crammed between similar buildings. Anxiously standing in front of his sister’s door, awaiting what would be their first encounter after several months, Kumalo overhears a “laughter in the house, the kind of laughter of which one is afraid… perhaps because it is in truth bad laughter,” (Paton 59 emphasis added). The bad laughter he hears is a product of Gertrude’s careless desires; her undisciplined lust for men. The context in which this laughter comes from is what makes it bad, especially in Kumalo’s mind, for he is not just her family, but a priest as well. Without a close-knit community to direct

Cry, the Beloved Country is a novel written by Alan Paton; the novel is filled with biblical allusions referring to II Samuel. Cry, the Beloved Country was first published in 1948 and stands as the single most important novel in twentieth-century South African literature. Cry, the Beloved Country; a work of blazing artistry, is the intensely moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, and how they were set against the background of a land and a people divided by racial injustice. Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man. The author, Alan Paton parallels II Samuel and Cry, the Beloved Country which heightens the understanding of the novel.

In a general sense, irony is a rhetorical device that is characterized by incongruity in the real situation and what is expected. The deliberate use of irony, especially in literary works and speeches, is used to emphasize a point. It is a language that in some of its forms understates facts, denies the contrary of the truth, or states the opposite of the truth. In all it’s forms, it elicits a similar effect to the audience. There

Describe the Author’s Style * Poetic * Descriptive * Sometimes a little bitter * Uses South African colloquialisms and vocabulary

Authors use stylistic techniques to convey meaning and to bring richness and clarity to their pieces of writing. In the short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” a man named Smiley is cheated out of a bet after he was so confident that he was going to be victorious. In the short story “Cannibalism in the Cars,” a train full of political figures is stopped by a severe snowstorm, preventing them from continuing their journey. In “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and “Cannibalism in the Cars,” Mark Twain uses imagery, characterization, and foreshadowing in order to aid a reader's understanding of the stories.

This essay will begin to explore Hamlet through a New Criticism lens by focusing on ironies, symbols, and themes brought up throughout the play. There are three different forms of irony that are focused on in Hamlet. The first one is dramatic irony, dramatic irony is when the reader knows something that they characters do not. This occurs when an event takes place that is unexpected by the character. For example, the reader finds out that Claudius is the one who killed the king based on what they ghost says to Hamlet(Act 1, Scene 5).

Dramatic irony is the type of irony that informs the reader of a certain fact that one or more characters in the story may not know. This is quite evident in Young Goodman Brown and A Cask of Amontillado, because of the lack of knowledge that the

Irony is a useful device for giving stories many unexpected twists and turns. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," irony is used as an effective literary device. Situational irony is used to show the reader that what is expected to happen sometimes doesn't. Dramatic irony is used to clue the reader in on something that is happening that the characters in the story do not know about. Irony is used throughout Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" through the use of situational irony and the use of dramatic irony.

-Dramatic Irony is when the words and actions of the characters in a work of literature are known to the audience or reader, but they are not known to certain characters in the story. The reader or audience has a greater knowledge of many of the characters themselves.

In dramatic Irony, occurs when the readers are aware about what is going to happen, but the characters do not have any clue about what is going on. In “The Black Cat”, the story begins with the main character sentenced to death, but with one story to tell. The Irony here is that he was not aware about how his life was going to change. In the beginning he is describing how happy was his childhood and how much he loved his pets. In the second paragraph of the story the main character describes his personality as a child in the first sentence “From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition. My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions” (3). He was a lovely child with an uncertain future. Another irony finds it on the story is how he describes the fidelity and love that the man can own “There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man” (3-4). When the story is progressing he is transforming to a violent man without any act of compassion towards his faithful pet, which actually represented faithfulness. He is represented himself as a child with a lovely personality, but he is not aware that the lovely child was going to transform in an alcoholic man with a violent personality willing to kill mercilessly.

Irony is a useful device for giving stories many unexpected twists and turns. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," irony is used as an effective literary device. Situational irony is used to show the reader that what is expected to happen sometimes doesn't. Dramatic irony is used to clue the reader in on something that is happening that the characters in the story do not know about. Irony is used throughout Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" through the use of situational irony and the use of dramatic irony.

Authors use irony in literature in order to give double meanings and make it more interesting to the reader. In the play “ The Death of a Salesman” Arthur Miller uses irony as a strong writing technique in order to express the character's behavior. In “The Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller moments of situational and dramatic irony helps to illustrate the story's theme in which Willy is a man trying yo achieve the American dream, however he have created a world of illusion.

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story about two lovers who are from two disputing families, and their eventual suicides. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony throughout the play to create tension for the audience and foreshadow the ending. Dramatic irony is when the words or actions of characters in a story have a different meaning to the reader than to the characters. This is because the reader knows something that the characters do not. Romeo and Juliet’s death could have been prevented if the characters in the story weren’t so ignorant of their situations, and often times the reader recognizes this.

A reoccurring theme in the play Macbeth is the use of ironic events. Irony is an unexpected occurrence that takes the audience by surprise and generally means the opposite of what is expected. These contradictory events enhance the plot of a story and create suspense. Irony is portrayed multiple times in this play and is known for making the play so amusing. Unexpected incidents throughout the plot occur in scenes involving the witches’ prophecies, Macbeth’s crimes committed to become king, and the back-and-forth changes in the mindset of Lady Macbeth.

Dramatic Irony is the result of information being shared with the audience but withheld from one or more of the characters.