Study On Irony In J.D.Salinger's Short Stories

J.D.Salinger was a contemporary American writer who is known for his widely-read novel The Catcher in the Rye and other stories which are both valuable for literary criticism.Academia has mostly taken into account The Catcher in the Rye and has gained fruitful achievements.However,it is still necessary to bring specialized studies from diverse aspects,especially from linguistic styles,on Salinger's short stories.Irony,as a common rhetorical device and artistic technique,has gone through a complex development in the Western literary history.However,its basic connotation is mostly concerned with the contrast between literal meaning and real implication,speech and deed,as well as expectation and reality.Irony plays a unique role on the choice of words,characterization,storyline and theme presentation in literary works.This thesis focuses on the irony in Salinger's short stories which are less involved in current Salinger studies.It takes irony as a point of penetration and tries to grasp the main themes of his writings from both form and content.Based on the ironic features of Salinger's short stories,this thesis mainly applies D.C.Muecke's explanation and classification of irony:verbal irony and situational irony.Firstly,it analyzes the verbal irony in Salinger's short stories in micro levels including specific dialogues,narrative paragraphs and designations from the aspects of understatement,blame by praise,irony of self-betrayal and paradox.Secondly,it analyzes the situational irony in Salinger's short stories in macro levels including irony of events,irony of incongruity,irony of fate and dramatic irony.Irony of events creates a contrast between characters' expectation and real circumstance;irony of incongruity makes a sharp contradiction between two objects to highlight or deconstruct one of the objects;irony of fate creates a mocking emphasis on the failure of one's controlling own fate;dramatic irony is a third-person omniscient which expands the tragic effect by forming the disparity between the readers'omniscient awareness and the characters'limited ignorance.In addition,in Salinger's short stories,irony is not only important on his characterization and storyline but also on highlighting major themes.Salinger dissects the mental crisis behind material prosperity in 1950s'America in his short stories by using irony.On the one hand,there are traumas caused by the war.On the other hand,there are spiritual sufferings caused by the reality.People never worried about their material shortage in such a prosperous society,but they are often stuck in mental tortures and can not get real happiness.Thus,Salinger expresses his reflection on human existence in the material-orientated society through irony.