Introduction and Outline

Edwin Arlington Robinson uses the character Miniver Cheevy to show that people are always going to have challenges in their life, but the best way of handling these situations is to accept them, so they receive positive results. He uses characterization to prove that issues in life should be embraced, and people should live life in the present instead of dreaming and living life in the past. Certain things that cannot be controlled, and he uses them to show that people should embrace them instead of trying to change them. In the poem “Miniver Cheevy”, Edwin Arlington Robinson depicts Miniver Cheevy as a child reminiscing about life in a different time period to send his readers a message about living in the present and accepting situations that people have no control over.

I.               Robinson characterizes Miniver Cheevy in this way, to illustrate that certain things in life cannot be controlled, but people create their own happiness by accepting the circumstances and finding a way to turn a tragic situation into a positive one.

a.     “He wept that he was ever born”

b.     “Coughed, and called it fate, and kept on drinking”

II.             Robinson depicts Miniver Cheevy as a character romanticizing about the past to prove to his readers that people should embrace their lives and challenges, as opposed to feeling sorry for themselves and trying to live in the past.

a.     “Miniver loved the Medici”

b.     “He would have sin incessantly could he have been one”

III.           Robinson portrays Miniver Cheevy as this character to show that life is not always going to go accordingly, and there is no reason to try to change the things that people have no control over, such as when and in what time period a person is born.

a.     “Born too late”

Introduction

In the poem “Miniver Cheevy” by Edwin Arlington Robinson, Miniver Cheevy desires life in a past time period and lives a miserable life, wishing that he was never born, because he is living in the present, where he feels like he does not belong. Robinson portrays him as this character to send its readers a message and to show them that sometimes people have no control over certain things in life, but the thing that people do have control of is their happiness. People create their own happiness by turning a tragic situation into a positive situation. Robinson shows people, through the character Miniver Cheevy, that not everything in life is always going to go accordingly, and some things cannot be controlled. When there is a situation that people are not happy with, they can be optimistic and control how the situation plays out. Miniver Cheevy could live a happy life, but he lives life in the past, instead of the present, and spends his time feeling sorry for himself. Robinson depicts Miniver Cheevy as a child reminiscing about a life in a different time period, to send a message about acceptance and making the best out of situations that people have no control over.  

"Miniver Cheevy" by Edwin Arlington Robinson

In the poem “Miniver Cheevy” by Edwin Arlington Robinson, we view Miniver Cheevy as a child, who wants to be a part of a different time period. He does not like or appreciate the life that he is living, and he wishes that he could go back to a different time, where he would be a lot happier than he is now. He dreams about all of the things that he would want to be a part of, if he were in that time period and thinks about who he would be. “He would have sinned incessantly could he have been one.” Robinson uses this line to help the audience understand how badly Miniver Cheevy desires the past. Instead of embracing the present, he craves the past and wants to be a part of something that he is currently not. He believes that his life in another time would be better than the life that he is currently living.

             Robinson might be trying to send the audience a message about acceptance, and living in the present and future, as opposed to dreaming about and trying to live in the past. There is no direct evidence in the poem that there is anything horrible about his life, other than the fact that he wants to live in a different time. Robinson might be trying to show its readers that sometimes it is better to accept what you have and continue to live life based on what you have or are capable doing. There is nothing that Miniver Cheevy can do to go back in the past, yet he continues to romanticize it. Robinson presents us with a character who "wept that he was ever born" because he wants to show the audience that not everything is always going to be the way that you want it to, but it is better to live with what you have and strive for things that are possible, rather than reaching for something that cannot be obtained. Miniver Cheevy wishes that he was never born, which shows that he is ungrateful, because he would rather not have been born than to be born during the time that he was.  He was “born too late,” and therefore believes that he does not fit in as well as he would in another time. 

Irony in "Once Upon a Time" by Nadine Gordimer

I think that Nadine Gordimer uses irony in her short story "Once Upon a Time” to send her readers the main idea of the story in a more interesting way than just directly explaining it. Irony is a useful way to convey the main ideas in a text because it makes the short story more interesting and exciting because it shocks and surprises the people reading the story.

I think that the main type of irony that Gordimer uses in her short story is situational irony. Situational irony occurs when the opposite of what is expected happens. Gordimer uses this constantly throughout her story. It is ironic that the thing that the little boy's parents installed to keep him safe and protected is the thing that harmed him most. This is ironic because his parents built the security system with the intention of keeping him safe, but in the end, the complete opposite happened. We, as the readers, expected the security system to keep him safe and not cause him any damage. The opposite of what we expected happened.

Gordimer uses irony to twist our expectations and end the story in a completely different way than how we think it is going to end. We expected there to be a happy ending because of the story line and the way she sets the story up, but the story ended tragically. She also used irony by creating a title that misleads its readers and gives them a false impression about what the story is about, as well as playing with our expectation of a fairy tale. It is ironic how their goal is to be completely safe, and yet they are the ones putting themselves at risk. “He pretended to be the Prince who braves the terrible thicket of thorns to enter the palace and kiss the Sleeping Beauty back to life. ” This passage is ironic because she is explaining the little boy’s actions as if he is part of a fairy tale, right before the tragic end of the story.