Irony What makes a story full of irony so interesting? Irony makes the reader expect the unexpected. As a reader you never know what will happen, but you think so. Irony can add humor to a story or help the reader connect certain events. Irony is present in “Charles”, “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Lottery”. “Charles” is written by Shirley Jackson. It's about a little boy named Laurie who had just started kindergarten. Every day, when Laurie comes home from school, she tells her parents about a boy in her class named Charles who is a very grumpy boy. Her parents get used to the routine of Laurie coming home and telling stories about Charles and his bad deeds. It's ironic that Laurie speaks disrespectfully. It's about a young married couple and how they deal with buying each other Christmas presents with very little money and only two prized possessions: Della's long, beautiful hair and Jim's grandfather's pocket watch. Della finds a lady who buys her long hair for twenty dollars, once her hair is cut she sets out to find the perfect gift for Jim. “It was a platinum key chain, simple and chaste in design, adequately proclaiming its value by substance alone…” (Henry, 277). An example of irony found in this story is that when Jim walks through the door on Christmas Eve Della thinks to herself; “He needed a new coat and was without gloves” (Henry, 278). If Della noticed that he needed a new coat and gloves, she should have bought them for him. Once it's time to exchange Christmas presents, Jim hands Della her gift and upon opening it realizes that they are the combs she's wanted for so long. “They were expensive combs, he knew, and his heart had simply longed and longed for them without the slightest hope of possessing them. And now they were hers, but the braids that adorned the coveted ornaments were gone” (Henry, 278-279). The long hair Della once had is now gone and the combs will no longer be of use to her. Della now hands Jim the new chain for his pocket watch, once Jim sees her he sits on the couch and puts his hands behind his head and smiles. Then he says; “I sold the watch to get the money to buy it. The story is about a small community somewhere in America that has followed the tradition of the “Lottery” for many years without ever questioning it or trying to counter it. The first obvious hint of irony is that the story is called “The Lottery”. In today's society a reader would think that this story is about someone who is about to win a large sum of money, but in this story it has a very different meaning drawing is about to begin, a woman named Tessie Hutchinson comes running down the path towards the square saying, "I forgot what it was today..." Mr. Summers, the lottery manager, says to Tessie, "I thought we should go forward without you, Tessie." Mrs. Hutchinson said smiling, "You wouldn't want me to leave the dishes in the sink now, would you, Joe?" (Henry, 375). piece of paper with the black spot on it. Then they put the paper back in the box to draw again and whichever member of the family has the black spot on it will be the one who will be stoned to death everyone approaches her, she starts screaming, “It's not right” (Henry, 379) If it had been anyone other than her, she would have joined in the stoning of that community member. Furthermore, it is ironic that the woman who had forgotten that it was lottery day and that was it