Mr._Z

Mr. Z Creating Situational Irony in Poetry Poetry often tells a brief story which encapsulates the entire life of a character in a few verse paragraphs. A skilled poet can generate an infinite variety of emotional responses from the reader, depending upon whether he or she intends the general tone of the work to be happy, sad, comedic, or ironic. In particular, situational irony can be difficult to create unless the correct words are chosen to direct the reader to the intended ironic conclusion. In his poem, "Mr. Z", (848) M. Carl Holman tells the ironic story of the title character and his struggle to live in a racially biased society while trying to remain racially neutral in all aspects of his life. The descriptive language Holman uses leaves little doubt that Mr. Z is a black man who deliberately shuns everything associated with his race. The ironic twist that he is dubbed "One of the most distinguished members of his race" (26) simply doesn't work unless the reader knows he's black. The first such evidence that leads the reader to believe that Mr. Z is a black man is the fact mr, reader, ironic, black, tells, situational, race, negro, irony, yams, work, while, unless, story, statement, spirituals, racially, poet, poem, particular, negroes, music, man, life, kinship, jazz, holman, diet, descriptive, creating, cornbread, collards, character, z's, words