Irony

"With the first fixing of its razor-teeth in his knees and hands and head he screamed and struggled deeper into its tangle."

This excerpt from the end of "Once Upon a Time" by Nadine Gordimer is apart of an example of irony. In the story, the parents built a large wall with barbed wire on it in order to keep evil away from their family. However, the end of the story is ironic because the son dies trying to climb the wall. The story seems to be a children's story. The author sets it up by saying she is telling it to herself before she goes to bed, like a parent tells a child to put them to sleep. However, the ending is probably too graphic for a child to hear and then go to bed easier. The parents' plan to protect their child from crime backfired bigtime. The ending was also very sudden and unexpected. The author was very quick to describe the boy's death.