Literary Devices and Their Uses The use of literary devices has proven to be the key to a successful story. An author's use of these devices makes or breaks the story for a reader. It must successfully define things like character, theme, and setting to put the reader into their mental framework to fully understand and feel the story. In this week's readings, we are shown the authors' use of literary devices with serious ironies to show the human condition and the nature of humanity. Stories like “The Black Man and the White Woman in a Dark Green Rowboat,” “The Rocking Horse Winner,” and “Gilded Six Bits” shed light on the essence of the human condition and the nature of humanity. While Ellison's "Battle Royal" and Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" define irony and draw the reader into sympathy and disbelief. While telling powerful stories can sometimes be as easy as conveying information, subtly introducing ironies, using correct symbolism, and even using the right point of view, it is what enhances and expands the author's vision. In the readings presented to us this week, the majority is set at the same time; when racism was still alive. Although most people were eager to overcome stereotypes, most found it difficult to adapt. The authors of each story had a very similar theme: socially repressed African American characters struggling to be accepted in white male-dominated society. In films like Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" and Ellison's "Battle Royal," we see each character's desperation to belong somehow, someway. While these two stories focused more on struggle, stories like "The Rocking Horse Victor" give us the true light on human nature. The story that captured my attention and sympathy the most was "Battle Royale", in which the author does an excellent job of using irony to make the reader understand something that the character in the story is obviously unaware of. In the meantime, the reader almost finds himself talking to the boy, wanting to show him what is really happening before his eyes. This use of irony is what makes Ellison, in my opinion, one of the best writers in this book. readings of the week. In his "Battle Royale" the young man seeks acceptance in the currently unequal society. He desperately tries to break the cycle of racism and racial stereotypes by attending school and getting high grades.