Identifying Literary Devices: Irony and Allusion
Authors of short stories use a wide variety of literary devices to achieve different
effects. Two common literary devices are irony and allusion.
There are three main forms of irony: verbal, situational, and dramatic. Verbal
irony is when an author uses words that mean something different from what they
seem to mean to create a specific tone or show a certain attitude. It is important
to understand the context of verbal irony so that you don't take it literally. For
example, a woman driving to work gets a flat tire and says, "Great! My day couldn't
start off any better!"

story the gift of the magi, starts page 87, lesson 1.16 in springboard