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As Seen in "The Sniper"
Situational Irony (noun.)
Irony involving a situation in which actions have an effect that is opposite from what was intended, so that the outcome is contrary to what was expected.
(dictionary.com)
In the short story "The Sniper" by Liam O'Flaherty, there is an example of situational irony when the finds out that the man he killed was his brother.
"Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brothers face" (439)
This is situational irony, because he was fighting to kill the enemy siniper, and afterwards remorse compelled him to look and see who it was that he killed. When it turns out to be his brother the reader is shocked because they were not expecting it.
The author of "The Sniper", Liam O'Flaherty, uses situational irony to surprise the reader with something unexpected. He also wrote it as the last line, to leave readers with a sense of surprise and many questions.
Another example of situational irony is show in the book The Memory of Things, by Gae Polisner. When Kyle Donohue is escaping the ashes after the Twin Towers collapse on September 11th, he sees what he thinks is a large feathered bird, curled up against a railing, and something urges him to stop and help it up. When he does help, he sees that the "bird" is actually a girl wearing angel wings. The girl was planning to jump off the bridge, this is an example of situational irony because the readers don't expect the large "bird" to be a girl. "The bird is not a bird, but a girl.'"(6)