Carnal Knowledge

The author of Carnal Knowledge Tom Coraghessan Boyle was born in December 2^nd of 1948. His writing carrier started in 1970s where he wrote over twenty novels and 100 short stories. Carnal Knowledge is one of the compilation stories he has in his collection of stories. The story Carnal Knowledge talk is a story that describes two people Jim and Alena, who live a life without human spirit. Having human spirit means that one uses his/her conscience to determine what is right and what is wrong. The two characters are described in this story as only attempting to satisfy their own desires, irrespective of how they affect others, and also not being watchful of their morals. All along, Jim tries to impress Alena on how he hates torturing of animals, however, his actions when he is not around her is contrary to what he says. In the Carnal Knowledge, the author significantly relied on the use of the various types of irony in his work in order to aid the communication of his views. This paper highlights the use of situation irony, verbal irony, and dramatic irony in the story.

Carnal knowledge is not an exception of what the author is all about when it comes to various styles. Some of the statements made in this book are clear indicator of verbal irony. According to the author, Alena was quick to deny that Rolfe was not in a relationship with her. However, her actions were quite the opposite. For one, the kissing incident was intense and would not be described a father-daughter kind of kiss. Alena was also quick to dismiss Jim and remain with Rolfe in the mission of saving bears. Jim’s comment on the fact that he does not eat meat also brings out verbal irony. The fact that he is keen to tell Alena that he does not eat meat is clearly opposite of what he does, as he was even about to invite her to his parent’s house where they used to serve a turkey for thanksgiving (Boyle 272). The fact that he eats meat is also evident when he parted ways with both Alena and Rolfe, where the urge of eating meat takes the better of him.

Situation irony is also seen to occur in this particular story. Jim in the story is seen to have called his boss for an alleged sickness he had. To him, this would give him a chance to spend time with Alena. However, this was not the case as he found himself among other protesters campaigning against killing of animals. Another kind of this situation irony is the incident of saving the bears that Alena described. The fact that Jim had proven his loyalty to them by being involved in rescuing the turkey successfully meant that he would have been a worthy candidate in the next required mission. Instead, he is left out of the rescue team and was only assigned the task of watering the flowers. The act by Jim on intimidating the woman who was wearing the clothing made of fur is a situational irony. The reasoning behind this is due to the fact that he tells us if how he used to wear leather shoes yet nobody intimidated him (Boyle 273).

Dramatic irony is highlighted through various instances in the passage. One of such incidence is the scenario where Jim feels pity for the dog that he thinks is having a problem; where else the dog had pissed on him. The same is also highlighted when Alena Jorgensen is talking to the dog about its action and Jim tends to think that she is talking to him and is even willing to narrate the whole story. When Alena and Rolfe meet, the kind of kissing that takes place is described by Jim to be not a father and daughter kiss.  However, though Jim articulates this incident, he still believed that Alena and Rolfe were not in a relationship (Boyle 275). In case they were not, why would Alena agree to be kissed the way she was kissed in the presence of his supposed boyfriend Jim? Jim, an animal’s campaigner goes to great extents to rescue animals. At some point he is involved in illegal acts and even fails to go to work so as to continue his mission of demonstrating against animal killings. However, at the point that he is left alone, the only thing he would think of is filling his stomach with meat. His attempts of saving the animals would be seen as just as being due to love of Alena but not of animals.

Carnal knowledge is a story that highlights on the behavior of two individuals, Jim and Alena.  The story line of the story focus on two individuals, who are self centered in nature and their only concern is the satisfaction of getting what they want no matter what. They are involved in many activities that are hurtful to others without fear of taking the consequences. Among many styles of writing used in this passage is irony. Different types of irony are highlighted and they are supported by various examples. The various ironies used are Verbal irony, dramatic irony and situational irony.

Work cited

Boyle, T.C . “Carnal Knowledge.” London: Penguin Books, 1999.