“The Sniper”
The tense drama of “The Sniper” is built upon coercing an identification with the title character by the reader. The reader, whether consciously or not, comes to be on the sniper’s side despite the fact he is fighting a civil war against his own people. The irony of both the foundation of this war and the reader’s natural tendency to side with the protagonist are shockingly underscored in the story’s closing line when the victim of the sniper’s bullet is revealed:
“Then the sniper turned over the dead body and look into her brother’s face.”
“The Stream”
This story comes to a climax with multi-layered irony that gets increasingly grotesque as it inexorably moves forward. A shriveled old hag who puts a curse on happy young brides turns out to be the beautiful young bride whose joy is destroyed two days into marriage. A brother maligns a young husband’s devotion to his wife by taunting “Marriage should not make you lose your manliness” only for events to wind up with a woman losing her man. The wife begs her husband not to go egg-hunting on the dangerous cliffs nearby and he winds up falling down the cliff. And, of course, the ultimate irony: it is the attempt to rescue the fallen brother which winds up killing him in most horrific way possible.
“The Foolish Butterfly”
The butterfly newly emerged from the constriction of his cocoon becomes so enamored by the possibilities of flight that becomes addicted to the high it offers. Ironically, it is the pursuit of his high that is the engine of his own self-destruction as he becomes so rapturously obsessed with the excitement of flight he fails to notice where, how far and how long he has been flying.
“A Red Petticoat”
A very subtle type of imagery is displayed in this story with the introduction of local shopkeeper Mrs. Murtagh. She is a woman a described as having “mercenary eyes, with a foxy look” who would have been beautiful were it not for the foxy look in her eyes:
“Mrs. Murtagh had a little general shop, that sold everything which a peasant could be expected to buy, and bought everything which a peasant could be induced to sell, except cattle, of course, and immortal souls.”
“Two Dogs”
The closing image of this story presents irony in the form of everyday assumptions. It is simply a scene that is one of the most commonly viewed every single day, a simple description of canine behavior familiar to just about everyone on the planet:
“He sniffed and his let his ears droop. Then he began to bark joyfully and ran around trying to catch his tail.”
The ironic dimension here is that hardly anyone coming across this scene in real life would ever imagine that this dog’s behavior had been stimulated by watching a rival dog—a greyhound new to the home—jump over a cliff to his death while chasing after a rabbit both dogs were let loose to hunt.
