While walking home from work, Lake Park Mall security guard Scott Thornton thought about his day. A shoplifter had outrun him, h
e had lost the keys to his golf cart, and a group of skateboarders had made fun of his weight. Things had not gone so well. Scott was so deep in thought that he did not even notice that he had stumbled on a movie set. Lost in thought, he passed by trailers, cameras, and stagehands, yet he was unaware of the scene around him. When he came out of his daze, he looked up and saw a ski mask wearing man waving a knife at an old lady. Figuring that the masked man was robbing the old woman, Scott bolted into action. His adrenaline was flowing. He didn't even notice the cameraman filming him as he jump kicked the actor wearing the ski mask. Which type of irony is used? Explain your answer and describe the effect the author achieves with its use, for example, humor, suspense, tension, revelation of character, among many other possibilities.
Situational irony is a literary device used when the author wants the readers to expect something but ends with the opposite. Here, the author uses Scout's situation to derive the irony in the passage.
Scout who had a bad day at work stumbled across a movie set while returning home in a deep thought. The author used that situation to derive the irony by making Scout jump into the movie scene trying to help the actor who was in distress. Ironically, it was all a scene in the movie and Scout wasn't aware of it.
The author also used humor by mentioning that the shoplifter outran Scout. This is because Scout was a security guard and it was his duty to apprehend the shoplifter but he couldn't do that too.
