Describe how authors set up an expectation throughout the narrative, and how the story’s end contrasts this expectation.

Essay #1: Compare and Contrast
At this point, we have read two stories regarding misunderstandings between couples: “The Gift of the Magi” and “A Temporary Matter.” However, the conclusions these stories come to are remarkably different. I am offering you several points of entry through which you will compare and contrast the ways in which these misunderstandings unfurl. This is a thesis driven essay, which means that you will make a claim about the work and use several pieces of evidence from the text to support it. Most likely, this kind of formal essay will take a minimum of three pages, but you are free to go above that.
Prompt 1: Irony Consider the role of irony in these works. Describe how authors set up an expectation throughout the narrative, and how the story’s end contrasts this expectation. What is O. Henry vs. Lahiri’s purpose for these ironic conclusions? How do these ironic conclusions characterize their view of communication in relationships? What kind of commentary are they making?

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