"APO 96225"

"And the father wrote right back,

'Please don't write such depressing letters.  You're

upsetting your mother" (16-18).

Question one of "APO 96225" by Larry Rottmann confused me for the entire class today.  I think that this poem deserves a list for situational irony and dramatic irony.

Situational Irony:

1. When his mother asks him to tell them everything, he writes only about monkeys and sunsets.
2. When he tells his mother everything, his father writes back telling him not to upset his mother.

Dramatic Irony:

1. Everything is positive, but that is only because the actual situation is so negative.

Okay, so those lists are really short, but I think that they helped me find the answer.  Despite being less points, the dramatic irony weighs much more strongly on the overall poem than the situational.  Imagine that the rocks on the right are the situational and the rock on the left is dramatic.  Since the dramatic irony is in every stanza, I think it is the actual prominent form of irony.  The letters are not to show that the mother and son have a strong bond in hardship, but rather the joyous message of the letters are supposed to show just how hard the situation is.  (pun intended.)