In the short story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel García Marquez, Marquez presents the main character as an old man who appears to be an angel. By depicting the man as what an angel wouldn’t be presumed to look like, the idea of rejecting what isn’t expected is highly highlighted throughout the story.

1.     When the story first began, we were introduced to an angelic old man, quickly taken in by a family. We are also shown how quickly the angel’s life is threatened by being an outcast.
    a.     “He’s an angel,” she told them. “He must have been coming fro the child, but the poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down”
    b.     On the following day everyone knew that a flesh-and-blood angel was held captive in Pelayo’s house. Against the judgment of the wise neighbor woman, for whom angels in those times were fugitive survivors of a celestial conspiracy, they did not have the heart to club him to death
2.     As the news of the angel became more widespread, the angel started to be seen more as a carnival act than a mythical old man.
    a.     Then he noticed he was much too human: he had an unbearable smell of the outdoors, the back side of this wings was strewn with parasites and his main feathers had been mistreated by terrestrial winds, and nothing about him measured up to the proud dignity of angels
    b.     He reminded them that the devil had the bad habit of making use of carnival tricks in order to confuse the unwary
    c.      The news of the captive angel spread with such rapidity… Elisenda then got the idea of fencing in the yard and charging five cents admission to see the angel
3.     When the angel stopped receiving visits, he becomes seen as a bother more than a blessing. The angel eventually leaves the family and they do not realize what they have until it is gone, and they are faced with the reality that the old man is an angel, and shouldn’t come quick to judge.
    a.      … Pelayo’s courtyard went back to being as empty as during the time it had rained for three days and crabs walked through the bedrooms
    b.     They would drive him out of the bedroom with a broom and a moment later find him in the kitchen.
    c.      … he was no longer an annoyance in her life but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea

     In "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Marquez uses symbolism and imagery to show us how a person or object is so quickly rejected when it is not classified as the norm. By depicting his main character as both heavenly and humanistic, weak and mythical, and old yet angelic, Marquez presents us with the idea of expectation versus reality, and how we turn away what we do not expect.

     In the poem "Miniver Cheevy" by E. A. Robinson, Robinson speaks of his main character Miniver as a person who resents his existence. Robinson shows us that Miniver was born too late and that he feels like he belongs in a different era. Miniver imagines the time in which he belongs full of romance and chivalry, unlike the "khaki suit" world that he lived in now. In the first stanza of the poem, Robinson tells us that "(Miniver) wept that he was ever born". Though it is common for people to believe they should have been born in a different era, Miniver completely resented his existence. Miniver was completely hypnotized with the idea that he belonged in the Medieval Ages, he was oblivious to the superior advancements made in his time. Since Miniver is so set on belonging in the Medieval Ages, he is possibly unable to come to terms with the misfortunes and changes that occur in his life, and feels as that if he did live in a different era that the troubles he had would not exist.

    By using irony in the poem "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy, Piercy was able to play with our expectations and create an unexpected ending. The type of irony that Piercy used in her poem was situational irony, when something happens and the opposite of what is expected occurs. When I first read "Barbie Doll", I know that I did not expect for the girl end up killing herself for the continuous bullying she received throughout her life. In the beginning, Piercy presents the main character as a girl being raised similar to all of the other girls her age, but once she began to grow out of the mold society set, she became a target for bullies. I think that the use of irony is so essential in this poem because it forces the reader guess what will happen next. The most ironic part of the poem was the last two stanzas, when the girl is so fed up with the consistent bullying, and she cuts off her nose and legs. By the heavy use of irony in this poem, Piercy is able to convey the societal pressures that girls face, not only through adolescence, but also through adulthood.

    My favorite piece of writing I read over the summer was "Once Upon a Time" by Nadine Gordimer. I found that I was constantly on the edge of my seat, trying to figure out the ending of the story before I was even halfway finished. My favorite part of the story was the constant use of irony. Using irony so heavily throughout the entire text definitely was a contributor to the surprising ending. The most shocking part was when the wall, that was supposed to protect and keep the family safe, ended up in the death of the child. I feel that all of us can relate to the little boy who ended up dying. We have all, at least once, put our trust in a single thing or person, that has resulted in harming us in someway. I also feel that we can relate to the parents in the story. The parents are constantly being fed rumors about recent break-ins, making them feel unsafe and for the need of the fatal wall. We are constantly being fed rumors that we blindly accept as facts