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Elements Of Irony In Stown

Decent Essays
Stown is a story of trust, hate, and love, but is it a southern gothic lit piece? Maybe it is due to the fact that it is filled with elements that everyone can relate to. Some of these elements include irony, decay, and social issues. These three elements are capable of defining who a person was, and who they have become because of them. Stown is a contemporary Southern Gothic Lit piece because of the irony, decay, and social issues represented throughout the story. Irony, a huge factor in the meaning of the podcast, is defined as an unexpected change in the plot. This element is a huge part of the South because of how much of the South’s history is ironic. One example of irony is the fact that John hated tattoos so much that he…show more content…
What is so ironic is that in a story that is so well put together, one of the themes is falling apart. Decay is something, whether it is a house or a person, figuratively or literally falling apart. In Stown and every other Southern Gothic Lit piece decay is found everywhere. The first form of decay is that as John came closer to his death, he began to purposely harm himself in ways that nobody expected. Brian tells us that, “So church, according to Tyler, morphed into what was essentially an elaborate form of cutting that helped John to relive his mental anguish.” This proves to be a form of decay because the closer that John came to his death he started using a self harm method of tattooing more often than he ever had. When someone does something like that they are showing that they are slowly starting to capitulate. The second form of decay was shown the night before John committed suicide. He talked to Skyler about how terrible the world was and that nobody should bring kids into this unpleasant world. Faye explained to Brian, “Like the main thing we talked about the other night was how bad this world was, and what it’s coming to and everything, and how me and Jake shouldn’t bring anymore kids and nobody else should bring any more kids into this world because of how bad it’s going to end up getting.” This is
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