Samantha Parker

Mr. Cook
ELA
17 November 2014

Have you ever had a favorite movie or story your mother might have read to you
when you were little, that turned out to have a twisted ending? The authors that have
created twisted endings in their short stories are, Shirley Jackson and Charlotte Perkins
Gilman. The short stories, The Yellow Wallpaper and The Lottery use irony as a
rhetorical device, to create a negative tone by adding a twist at the end of their stories.

In the story The Yellow Wallpaper, had shown a lot of examples of irony.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote, Ive got out at last, said I, In spite of you and Jane!
And Ive been pulled off most of the paper, so you cant put me back (Page 36)! This
dialog in a event in the story, The Yellow Wallpaper shows the rhetorical device of
irony by having the story change in the end. Gilman also writes, The fact is I am getting
a little afraid of John. He seems very queer sometimes, and even Jennie has an
inexplicable look (Page 26). This event in The Yellow Wallpaper shows the rhetorical
device of irony, creating a negative tone within the characters of the story. The author
had created this tone between the husband and wife in her short story by using the
rhetorical device of irony.

In the story The Lottery, showed a lot of examples of irony. Shirley Jackson
writes, Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held

her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her (Page 7). This event in the
story, The Lottery shows the rhetorical device of irony, by creating a negative tone and
ending, that as the reader, did not expect. Shirley Jackson also writes, The children
had stones already, and someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles (Page 7).
The author created this story to have the reader critically think about why these different
events have occurred.
Throughout both stories, The Yellow Wallpaper and The Lottery used
irony as a rhetorical device, to create a negative tone by adding a twist at the end of
their stories. Gilman writes, The front pattern does move-and no wonder! The woman
behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and
sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over
(Page 30). This event shows the twistedness that Charlotte Perkins Gilman had created
at the end of her story, to get me, as the reader thinking. Furthermore, Shirley Jackson
writes, It isnt fair, it isnt right, Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon
her (Page 7). This event shows that the term, The Lottery isnt always a good
situation to be upon.

In conclusion, in both stories The Lottery and The Yellow Wallpaper show
irony as the rhetorical device by creating a negative tone and a twisted ending. These
stories create a negative tone and twisted endings by using the rhetorical device of
irony throughout events in their story. The Lottery and The Yellow Wallpaper show
irony by creating a positive, and peaceful story that seems to be almost a story for a
child to read, but then turns out to have a negative outcome at the end, that creates this
unfinished story.