Art and Irony Free Essay Example

Mark Twain once wrote that "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead." Isn’t this ironic, saying that it is easier to write numerous words in a short span rather than writing fewer words that still have the same meaning? Artists use irony in their texts to make the reader think, just like this quote made you think, even if the writer is criticizing something. Unlike this quote here, artists often use irony to highlight a social issue. Their goal is to convey their opinions, through their text, to address a social conflict. Artists are influenced by social issues, which motivate them to spread awareness, resulting in them using irony to make subtle comments about their society.

Artists are influenced by social issues to write about those problems and to include specific themes in their works. In “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson, influenced by the social problem of tradition, wrote about an annual tradition, in which one member of the village was stoned to death, but the ironic thing is that this tradition was called “the Lottery”. We can see that she is trying to highlight the importance of questioning traditions. Shirley Jackson wrote, “‘It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,’ Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.” (Jackson 7) Tessie had been centered by the crowd and she was hopeless and crying as her own family and friends started to throw stones at her. Therefore, traditions are not always beneficial and can be unfair. This tells us that we need to question traditions as society progresses, as things evolve and change. Further on, we can see that Shirley Jackson also stresses the role of the “black box”. She wrote, “ but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.”(Jackson 1). The black box symbolized tradition and even though it had gotten shabby, the villagers refused to replace it because of their blind beliefs. On the other hand, the inspiration behind The Monsters are Due on Maple Street, an episode of Twilight, may have been moments where the writer felt that humans stopped being sympathetic and caring about others, moments where they lost their humanity. Unlike “The Lottery”, it highlights the fact that fear can turn humans into monsters, which may not be considered a social conflict but is a social problem. It portrays the negative aspects of human nature. In the episode, Dylan started acting reckless and told everyone to get ready to defend themselves, and when Will told them that he was scaring everyone, Dylan attacked him. (“The Monsters Are on Maple Street” 11:18-12:02) This act of blaming each other and especially the new family highlights the aspect of human nature that blames others in moments of panic, rather than working together to find a solution.

In both of these texts, we can find social criticism, as the writers have used irony to make comments about society. In The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, as soon as everyone saw one of the members of the new family coming back home in a car that was still working and that their house still had electricity, they started making assumptions about them being behind the terrorist attack, while Will tried to convince them that the new family was not to blame. (“The Monsters Are on Maple Street” 12:26-13:40) Hence, this shows how humans can at times become monsters themselves and still blame others for it. At the end of the episode, everyone set the new family’s house on fire, after which we got to know that it was all an army exercise to see how long an isolated community would be able to sustain itself in an event of a perceived terrorist attack. (“The Monsters Are on Maple Street” 19:26-20:10) This is an example of situational irony, which also helped us understand the message that fear can turn humans into monsters themselves. However, in “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson wants to tell us that not all traditions need to be followed, one doesn't have to follow them if they don’t believe that they are fair. She highlights this fact when she wrote that people in the north village had given up the lottery but Old Man Warner was against that. He referred to the young generation as "a pack of crazy fools," and also said that “used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery." (Jackson 4) Elder people might still have blind faith in such traditions that should have been long gone, but the newer generations don’t have to follow them if they can see that they are wrong and harmful. In “The Lottery”, we get to know as we reach the end of the story, that the people were trying to lose the so-called “Lottery” instead of wanting to win it because if you did win it, you would be stoned to death. This is also an example of situational irony because the opposite of what is expected happens. This use of irony helps us, the readers, understand the writer’s message and her opinion on the issue.

On the whole, these sources suggest that artists use irony in their work to focus on social issues and share their opinions. They tend to focus on social issues because they are influenced by them. Using irony helps grasp the reader’s attention in a way that makes them “stop and think” about the issue that the writer is trying to address and enable the reader to understand their perspective.