Zora Neale Hurston’s Strong Voice

Question 4 • MO-English Language Arts 11 B-CR

What ironic contrast does Vonnegut include in this scene?

Answer

George tells his wife to forget sad things, but readers would expect George and Hazel to want to remember their son.

George is smarter than Hazel, but neither of them can remember what they just watched on television.

Readers would expect a sad ending to the story, but instead it ends on a positive note.

Hazel says that everything is “mixed up in her mind,” but the reader knows that she is actually much smarter than she thinks.

Explanation

George tells Hazel to forget the sad thing she saw on television, and Hazel quickly does so. The irony is that readers would expect parents to want to remember their son, Harrison, rather than forget him. This contrast between George and Hazel’s forgetfulness and what readers expect makes choice A correct.

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