In “The Five Helpers”, A.W. Cardinal uses dramatic irony and symbolism in order to make us interested in the story by starting a discussion. “The Five Helpers” is a short story originating from Togo about a beautiful daughter of a chief. After meeting many men from all over the world, she could not find one that was good enough for her to marry. Later, she finds the perfect ‘man’ but she has no idea that he is actually a snake. They immediately get married and celebrate. The couple goes on top of a roof when things begin to go wrong. Her husband licked her all over and swallowed her turning back into snake form afterwards. He quickly ran back to the lake to hide. The chief began to look for his daughter everywhere, but he could not find her so he asked for help. There are five special men who help find the daughter. One smelled the trail of the girl. Then second man drank up all the water in the lake. The third man dug out all of the mud from the lake. The fourth man stretched his arm into the hole to pull the girl out and kill the python. The fifth man had the power of medicine so he revived the girl.
A.W. Cardinal uses dramatic irony in the middle of the story in order to make the audience interested. The author tells the audience that the girl was swallowed by the snake in the fourth and fifth paragraphs. For example, “…the snake licked the girl all over and swallowed her...” This is dramatic irony because the audience knows where the girl is, but the chief and the helpers