Many great authors incorporated irony into their works. The Brothers Grimm, for example, used irony in their story ‘The Three Languages’. In brief, a father sends his son to learn and instead his son learns the language of animals. The father drives his son away in a furious rage. However, because of his skill with animals, the son blunders his way into becoming son of a count, and then, a pope! As shown, Irony is an effective tool to get the reader thinking, drive home a lesson, or to highlight a humorous moment. The Chosen, a novel by Chaim Potok, has a very ironic scene in the hospital, involving Reuven, Billy, and Mr. Savo.
As the novel opens, Reuven gets hit in the head with a baseball and taken to the hospital. He has surgery on his eye, and resides in-between two other patients. Reuven learns he might not recover sight in his eye, and while in the hospital makes friends with the other two patients. Many of the things Reuven observes in the hospital make him think, and probably stay with him the rest of his life. “ I tried to imagine what life would be like with only one good eye. I couldn’t” (52). How ironic that in order to meet Danny and receive a new view of Judaism, Reuven is required to first lose his physical sight.…show more content… He’s in the hospital for eye surgery also, but Billy’s already blind. The surgery is to try and correct his blindness. But the author put Billy next to Reuven to help Reuven cope. Even if he loses sight in his eye, at least he’s not as bad off as Billy. We learn later Billy’s surgery did not turn out successfully. That Rueven’s surgery turned out successfully, but Billy’s did not is one of the bitter ironies in the