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Read the following excerpt from Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi: My father was a justice of the peace, and I supposed he possessed the power of life and death over all men, and could hang anybody that offended him. This was distinction enough for me as a general thing; but the desire to be a steamboatman kept intruding, nevertheless. I first wanted to be a cabin-boy . .. later I thought I would rather be the deck-hand who stood on the end of the stage-plank with the coil of rope in his hand. ... But these were only day-dreams-they were too heavenly to be contemplated as real possibilities. What is one effect of the irony in this passage? O A. It makes fun of the notion that a son of a justice of the peace would want to become a thief. O B. It creates humor in that the son of a justice of the peace would find manual labor a more satisfying career. O C. It shows the innocent and fickle dreams of a child whose hopes jump from one profession to another. O D. It pokes fun at the idea of wanting to be seen by his friends making decisions in a courtroom

User JeremyDWill
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1 Answer

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10 votes
Answer: B) It creates humor in that the son of a justice of the peace would find
manual labor a more satisfying career.

Explanation: an irony is a state of affairs or an event that seems contrary to what
one expects and it often has an amusing result. In the given excerpt from "Life on
the Mississippi" by Mark Twain, we can see an example of an irony in the fact that
the speaker is the son of a justice of the peace (that was very respected and important career) but he finds a manual labor(steamboat man or a cabin-boy) more satisfying.

Hope this helps :)
User Nick Redmark
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