OXYMORON vs. PARADOX
There are two literary terms– OXYMORON and PARADOX- which are easily confused, which I will help clarify for you !
First is OXYMORON – this refers to a description of something using a combination of two words that are actually the opposite in meaning. This seems counterintuitive, yet this very juxtaposition creates a different meaning for the thing being described.
An example of an OXYMORON would be going to a restaurant and seeing the menu item JUMBO SHRIMP. Everyone seems to understand what that means, but if you really think about it, it’s an odd name for a product ! JUMBO means really huge, and SHRIMP means really small, so putting them together in a description seems bizarre. Yet, it’s a common term that everyone understands anyway.
Another example – if someone tells a joke, and the response from a listener is, “that joke is SERIOUSLY FUNNY !” SERIOUS and FUNNY are opposite in meaning, but when the words are set side-by-side to describe one thing, they create another meaning which seems to make sense.
Another example – if two people who work in an office are having an affair which they think is clandestine, but everyone else in the office knows about it, it might be referred to as an OPEN SECRET. Again, this is a perfect example of an OXYMORON, because how could something be openly discussed and still be a secret ?
One more example – the notion of BITTERSWEET. BITTER is the opposite of SWEET, yet this term exists as a descriptor for many things, including chocolate ! Now you have an idea of how OXYMORONS work.
Now on to PARADOX ! A PARADOX occurs when one reads a sentence or passage and it all makes sense, but upon closer inspection the reader realizes that the sentence contradicts itself….or does it ?
Are you familiar with the novel ANIMAL FARM ? All of the animals cast out the human owner and then go about establishing a new government of strict rules and laws. One of the sentences in the books is, “All animals are created equal, but some are created more equal than others.” On the surface, it seems to make sense as a sentence, but how can something be MORE equal than something else ? And yet, there is a grain of truth to the statement, even though it seems self-contradictory. We know that there are class distinctions which place some people in more privileged positions in society than others. That’s exactly what occurs in the novel, as a caste system develops among the animals living in their newly constituted society. So a PARADOX, while seeming to be a statement which contradicts itself, always contains truth behind it.
Another example of a PARADOX – if a group of friends is discussing where to go out one night, and one says, “Let’s eat at that restaurant over there,” and the response is, “ Oh, no, not that one ! Nobody ever goes there because it’s always so busy and crowded!” At the outset, this makes sense. Of course, who wants to go to a crowded, busy restaurant? But can you really say “no one goes there” if it’s always “crowded and busy?” The statement makes sense, even though the words used to express it are contradictory.
In the play HAMLET, Hamlet himself is ruminating over what course of action he must take in his present circumstance. He says, “ I must be cruel to be kind.” How can these two concepts coexist ? And yet they do make sense when the reader considers the meaning. That is the nature of a PARADOX. It makes you think about how these two concepts can be presented simultaneously, and from that meaning you understand the subtle truth in that tension caused by the disparate ideas being presented.
We hope you now understand the difference between OXYMORON and PARADOX.
ASL Literature Resource 