Humor's Role

"I had to laugh 'cos I couldn't cry no more"

--anonymous

Humor can make a really sad story just barely acceptable. When we read a depressing story, we feel very bad, however, the jokes and humors make the story readable and maybe even enjoyable. This saying basically means, you can't feel sad forever about everything; if your life is sad, try to have fun with it and try to enjoy some parts of it. Angela's Ashes is a very sad story by Frank and the fact that it's a true story made it worse. However, the story is also filled with silly little details and events to make the story enjoyable in a sense that it's not sad all the way to the core. Also, for a story that sad, everything that's not so sad is going to be mildly good relatively so it's easier to create a few humorous details here and there. Usually in this kind of work, a very sad tragedy, authors use catharsis to soothe the tension because some of the events might just be too horrible. For example, when a very close friend of the main character dies and the character is experiencing a lot of grief, the author sometimes adds a little twist or details that is just enough to make the reader smile or sigh in relief. When a story is just too sad and the characters are just too depressed, even though there is almost nothing to laugh about, they will laugh at their misfortune and to make their life bearable.