"APO 96225" by Larry Rottman - Situational Irony

The mother in this poem doesn't really want what she says she does. She is like all mothers - she knows everything! The whole time she is begging her son to tell the whole truth because she knows he is holding back, "Son, we want you to tell us everything. Everything!" Yet when the son responds with what he is actually doing, she is apalled and her husband pleads, "Please don't write such depressing letters. You're upsetting your mother." She knows that the truth is bad, but she doesn't realize that she doesn't want to hear it. I loved how the poem started the same way it ended! That sealed the irony of the situation. What is the effect of the irony? The speaker is able to display how the public views war. They "want" to hear everything, but when they do, they respond negatively. The speaker is trying to tell his audience that sometimes being informed can be a bad thing. This video is my version of situational irony. The scientist doesn't really know what he was supposed to do.