"His name's Lennie Small."
This book, Of Mice and Men contains a lot of very clever irony. It ranges from from Lennie to Curly's wife. John Steinbeck's use of it is smart. Irony can be funny or it can be very serious. The irony from Of Mice and Men though tends to lean more towards the funny side. A good example of this is the way Steinbeck decided to make jokes about Lennie's size. He is rather large. Another example is with Curly's wife. She tries to be forthcoming to all of the men but all of the men shut her down.
A better example of irony involving Curly's wife really shows how forthcoming she actually is but yet all of the men want do not want anything to do with her.
" 'She's purty,' said Lennie defensively. 'Yeah and she sure ain't hidin' it,' " (Steinbeck 32).
The only thing Curley's wife really wants is all of the men to flirt with her so that they can get in trouble by Curley. If she can get any of them to flirt with her then it is an automatic win for her because Curley would gladly take care of that person. But luckily Curley and Curley's got what they were in for.
The critic Joesph Fontenrose also agrees with such irony because he states that although one plans to have your own ranch, all plans fail and go completely opposite.
"The land hunger of impoverished farm workers, a dream of independence usally means a dream (and when it becomes a real plan, the plan is defeated" (Fontenrose).
This is definitely irony. So many people in the world plan to do something that they've always dreamed of but it just ends up foiling in their face. This criticism could very easily be taken as The American Dream, but it is also very ironic.
A better example of irony involving Curly's wife really shows how forthcoming she actually is but yet all of the men want do not want anything to do with her.
" 'She's purty,' said Lennie defensively. 'Yeah and she sure ain't hidin' it,' " (Steinbeck 32).
The only thing Curley's wife really wants is all of the men to flirt with her so that they can get in trouble by Curley. If she can get any of them to flirt with her then it is an automatic win for her because Curley would gladly take care of that person. But luckily Curley and Curley's got what they were in for.
The critic Joesph Fontenrose also agrees with such irony because he states that although one plans to have your own ranch, all plans fail and go completely opposite.
"The land hunger of impoverished farm workers, a dream of independence usally means a dream (and when it becomes a real plan, the plan is defeated" (Fontenrose).
This is definitely irony. So many people in the world plan to do something that they've always dreamed of but it just ends up foiling in their face. This criticism could very easily be taken as The American Dream, but it is also very ironic.