Mark Twain's A War Prayer

The war prayer depicts a man coming in to tell them that fighting war wasn’t no justification right. A country goes into war and church member call ups a meeting to pray for the soldiers. They prayed to GOD to grant them victory and to protect their troops. when an unexpected man comes on alone to tell them it’s not right sending them off

In a general sense, irony is a rhetorical device that is characterized by incongruity in the real situation and what is expected. The deliberate use of irony, especially in literary works and speeches, is used to emphasize a point. It is a language that in some of its forms understates facts, denies the contrary of the truth, or states the opposite of the truth. In all it’s forms, it elicits a similar effect to the audience. There

In the novel ‘’Night’’ Eliezer survives from Auschwitz and surprisingly almost dies from food poisoning.The irony in this is that he could of died many ways at Auschwitz but ultimately almost dies from food poisoning.That is also a form of situational irony meaning that the situation turns opposite of what you expect.Another example of situational irony in’’Night’’ is when Chlomo Wiesel makes a remark about the yellow Jewish star,mocking it by asking if its lethal,but wearing the yellow star is what kills him in the story.In this essay I’ll be giving you more three more examples of irony throughout the novel ‘’Night’’.

Satire: a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule. In the early 1900s, talk was all about war, but war was not all talk. The United States was involved in multiple wars, and most people believed war to be a positive thing. Those with differing opinions were publicly shamed, and Mark Twain was not exactly shy about flaunting his opinion at first. His personal views of the goings-on in the world can be found in his writing, and “The War Prayer” was no different. Mark Twain’s “The War Prayer” informs the reader of his negative views of war in multiple ways, and show how only dead men can speak out about their opinions. This is shown with the double meaning behind the “age stranger” quote, the capitalization of Throne, and using his personal quote about dead men.

This is ironic because he is giving advice on how to write a story but he didn’t take his own advice. The last place of irony is when O’Brien says that this story was actually a love story. When most people think of death and war they think of sadness and tragedy. And these war stories, according to O’Brien, were love stories.

In the short story The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell uses irony to develop the plot and characters. It also uses irony to make the story more interesting and suspenseful.

“We pierced the forest about half a mile and took up a strong position with some low and rocky hills behind us, and a purling limpid creek in front. Straightaway half the command was in swimming and the other half fishing,”and so Mark Twain’s short story: The Private History of a Campaign that Failed is summarized—but was Twain swimming or fishing?

Irony, a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result. Throughout Night there is use of situational and verbal irony. This use of irony keeps the reader interested. The use of irony causes the reader to know things that the characters often are not aware of.

War is something that all countries have been apart of at some point. War, is an awful thing, but it is inevitable and impossible to avoid is many cases. Although, sometimes war cannot be avoided, it is still protested by many people. Many protesters who are also former soldiers; protest war by writing about it using certain techniques of writing. Writers use irony, structure, and imagery to protest war in their writings.

The Filipino-American war is one of the significant wars, because it was a continuation of the Filipino struggle for independence that took several years. Not all Americans supported these wars; Mark Twain, an American author, expressed his disappointment of the church through his prayer. Mark Twain's war prayer was a response to the Spanish American war; he presented his viewpoint on the military, and the war itself.

The definition of irony is a contrast between two things. One example is verbal irony. It is a contrast between what someone says and what one means, while dramatic irony is a contrast between what the characters know to be true and what the readers know to be true. Many writers use irony in their short stories to prove a dramatic point, or just to develop a story for upcoming use. These short stories by Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” (140), Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers” (183), and Stephen Crane’s “The Blue Hotel” (229), spin a tale of symbolic irony. Each tell a tale paradoxical twists with sublime contradiction where one is led to believe one side of an event, yet it is dragged down a twisted trail of mental sarcasms coupled with death. It is a known fact that many tales of irony require many major events to twist the order they are written in to create a viewpoint that stride away from the main topic or where the author wants the reader to end up.

During the early 1900’s, Americans were caught up in the idea of imperialism, or extending their influence to other countries using military force. Mark Twain’s essay, The War Prayer, was written during this time, but argued against the popular philosophy of imperialism. Twain’s essay was too controversial and Harper’s Bazaar believed it was not suited for the public to read, so it went unpublished until after his death and after the idea of imperialism had lost its fervor.

Mark Twain is known as the one of the most influential and prolific writers of our time. Many literary greats who followed him such as William Faulkner declared him the father of American Literature and the most celebrated humorist and realist of all. Twain used his life experiences growing up as a child along with his experiences as a river boat captain in Missouri to help shape his writings. His uncanny ability to use language of the common man in specific regions of the country, connected readers honestly with his characters. The War Prayer published in 1905, was a particularly sobering and controversial piece which offered a scathing indictment of war in general, but quite likely the Philippine-American War specifically. Twain was also known for his satirical writings relative to race and culture, but it is the “War Prayer” that is one of the more powerful pieces that represents Twain’s fervid anti-war position.

“The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty uses situational irony to tell people that war can turn family against each other. Next, is “Just Lather and Nothing Else” by Hernando Tellez, has situational irony and the author uses this irony to express that killing someone is much

War did nothing but cause death; during WWI and WWII, about 80-85 million deaths sadly occurred. Soldiers are now heros to the people since they risking their life for the lives of the people. “... the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion…” (Twain) described perfectly how people react to someone's accomplishments to the reader. Here Twain talks about how beloved people react towards seeing their soldier walking in their uniform. In the satire “The War Prayer” Twain makes fun of how religion was used during war. Twain used satire in “The War Prayer” by saying how people pray for the death of the enemy, which are just like them, human beings.