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Get every literary device explanation for On Earth We’re Briefly GorgeousPlus so much more...
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Situational Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Unread Letter:
During Part 2 of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Little Dog gives an account of his first sexual encounter with another boy. In an example of situational irony, he addresses Rose directly but draws the strength to be vulnerable from her absence:
The first time we fucked, we didn’t fuck at all. I only have the nerve to tell you what comes after because the chance this letter finds you is slim—the very impossibility of your reading this is all that makes my telling it possible.
Little Dog is writing On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous as a letter to his mother; despite this, he does not expect her to read the letter. The contradiction of this letter, meant to remain unopened, ironically gives Little Dog the strength to communicate greater vulnerability.
There exists an inherent irony in a letter that will never be read—but perhaps, despite the fact that Little Dog addresses his letter to Rose, he never once intended her to read it. Simply the act of writing this letter may be catharsis in and of itself; Little Dog may not expect to ever communicate so directly with Rose. He writes to her, but for himself. He writes to relieve the tension of a story untold.
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