In “The Eyes Have It”, the author, P.K.

Dick, develops suspense and tension by

using a variety of literary devices. The author uses irony through word play in the story
to show what the English language can be when taken literally. This story is filled with
humor and paranoia, and P.K. Dick uses that to his advantage by playing with different
words and their meanings. With phrases like “...his eyes slowly roved about the room,”
the author took what is normal in society, and transformed it to be literal, he took the
phrases that were known ironically and made them not make any sense. “The Eyes
Have It”, concludes itself by presenting how uncanny English words can be when
ultimately being presented literally.
The story “The Dinner Party,'' by Mona Gardner, uses literary devices to fill the
entirety of the story with irony, suspense, tension, and somewhat of an emotional
discomfort. To build the tension within the story, Mona uses foreshadowing and
symbolism. Since the characters were figuring out the story with the reader, wanting to
know what would happen next makes the person reading the story hooked and curious
about what would come next. One of the main things being highlighted in the story is the
irony in how social constructs, expectations, and gender norms were presented in that
time period. The colonel believes that a woman's first reaction in a crisis is to run and
scream, and the author uses the story to portray the irony in what is believed. In the end
of the story, the readers find out, with the colonel, that Mrs. Wynnes knew about the
snake from the beginning, and she was the one to ask for the bowl of milk. When the
woman states that the snake was crawling on her foot, Mona Gardner uses Mrs.
Wynnes as her game piece to present how untrue the colonel’s affirmation is. The story
wraps up by showing how the social constructs built in that era were mistaken and
innacurate.
Both of these divergent stories have many similarities. They share many literary
devices used to captivate the reader. For example, with evident irony and
foreshadowing, tension and uneasiness is built in the story. The use of irony, even
though different, is present in both texts to contribute to the social commentary in each
story. Similarly, the authors try to hook the reader and maintain their curiosity until the
very end. As well as, using symbolism and wordplay to confuse and mislead the
audience, which, ultimately, turn out to reveal the shallow and wrongly placed priorities
in their different social scenarios. The connections between these two stories can be
extended to the real world. On top of this, the social commentary and awareness
present in them, is an allusion to the world we live in. These stories open our eyes to
different points of views in society’s present and even the past. Authors like these reveal
our society for what it really is with just a short story, which is why it not only connects to
our real world, it also represents it.