Jean Shepherd

“Mewling, puking babes. That’s the way we all start.” is how Jean Shepherd started on his writing named “The Endless Streetcar Ride into the Night, and the Tinfoil Noose” shows of prose use irony and symbolism to underline similar themes, namely the tension between the narrator’s ignorance during of a youthful past versus the sad wisdom of someone who is older and wiser. But while Shepherd uses ironic language in his essay, he expresses sentiments that are likely to be his own, reflects Shepherd at the beginning of his essay. In short, all of us begin the same way, as blank slates or infants. There is an ironic tension between this vulnerable state and the “Prime Ministers, the Presidents, Cabinet members, Stars, dynamic molders of the Universe,” that some of these babes become.

He uses emotional appeal to attract the audience into thinking that “I felt like that when I was little” or like “I understand what he’s saying.” he uses it to not only attract us but also remind us that’s how it is in today’s life style. “.. one minute we’re all playing around back of the garage, kicking tin cans… nest instant you find yourself doomed to exist as an office boy in the Mail Room in Life.” Shepherd is being “tongue and cheek” he to get his comedy humor into his writing. “.. that the Great Divide is rarely a matter of talent or personality. Or even luck.” In a whimsical way Shepherd is mocking things in History “Adolf Hitler had a notoriously weak handshake. His smile was, if anything, a vapid mockery.” the historical allusions are ironic because Hitler was the cause of a World War, did human cruelty, become a dictator of Germany, and also created a political party named National Socialist German Workers’ Party otherwise known as the Nazi Party that many people know about but not many go by. This once dictator and what people thought was a “good leader” had a weak handshake and his smile was mockery, which is why Shepherd this it’s ironic since a great leader should have a strong and firm handshake and a smile of warmth but yet passion.

Near the end of the essay, the ending paragraph states “There are about four times in a man’s life… when unexpectedly, from out of the darkness, the blazing carbon lamp, the cosmic searchlight of Truth shines full upon them. It is how we react to those moments that forever seals our fate.” Shepherd wants his audience to understand that there are these moments when you are handed something and is persuading that you should take them just to see where it will lead you. “One crowd simply puts on sunglasses… and ignores the whole thing.. we, the Doomed, caught in the brilliant glare of illumination, see ourselves inescapably for what we are, and from that day on sulk in the weeds hoping no one else will spot us.” In a exaggerating but serious tone he simply states that the successful tires to make them more successful or just think “I have as much as I want.” but while the unsuccessful doesn’t know what to do and just simply wonder what could have been if they would have taken the golden opportunity.