Irony, you may not think of it as much more than a minor literary device, but it often plays an enormous factor in short stories today. For example, The Interlopers, by Saki, is a short story which utilizes the effects of irony noticeably well by using ironic humor to connect the reader to the reading. To define, irony is when the opposite of what is expected to happen occurs. In this case, the story displays a strong sense of situational irony, which is irony that no one knows is coming. Irony can be found in this story when two men, who’s families have been in a massive feud for three generations over a disputed plot of land, are stuck under an enormous tree that blew down on top of them as they confronted each other in the forest. While
