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Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Decent Essays

Did you know that you have been lied to? Time and time again, people in and out of fiction have told you things that aren’t exactly true, but you both knew it was a lie (a rather sarcastic one at that). This is an example of what is called irony— what results when the actual outcome differs from what was expected— and irony is something that is heavily featured in Mildred Taylor’s historical fiction novel, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. In this book Mildred Taylor’s use of irony helps to accomplish three main tasks: characterize the monochromatic cast of characters, elucidate and illuminate the main theme of the passage, creating, setting, and modifying the ambiance and mood of the various chapters. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, irony …show more content…

A prime example of this is on page 196, when Cassie offers to “sacrifice” school to help in the field. This is what is called verbal irony. Another good example of this is on page 258 when David says that there will be no “T.J.”s in the Logan house, but T.J. had just been in their house. When Cassie said that she wanted to “sacrifice” school it was a joke because in reality Cassie dislikes school; she would rather be out in the field. Both examples try to keep the story fresh and exciting and lighten the mood by adding humor to the story right before the story becomes very serious, as if the story was pulling punches. Additionally, the latter example brings attention to T.J. who is the main focus at the time; the statement is also ironic due to the fact that T.J. finally gets more of the thing he craves, attention: however this is at the time he wants it the least. In conclusion, irony plays a major in Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by providing the reader with characterization, setting the ambiance in the various chapters, and giving us a glimpse of the most predominant themes by having ironic situations regarding topics that were very important at the time. Irony with humor is used to signify a climax in the mood before the mood is shifted. Furthermore, irony characterizes by allowing readers to see how characters react to ironic stimuli. It truly is ironic how when the authors lie to us in their books, we love their books even

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