Which statement best explains the paradox in this line?
Algernon. It is awfully hard work doing nothing.
- The Importance of Being Earnest,
Oscar Wilde
No one would agree that doing nothing is hard
work, so the statement is clearly meant as a joke.
Algernon thinks that doing nothing is hard work, but
he does not actually know what hard work is like.
Doing nothing seems like it should be quite easy,
but sometimes it really can be difficult to do nothing.

This statement explains the paradox:

Doing nothing seems like it should be quite easy,  but sometimes it really can be difficult to do nothing.

Explanation:

In Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of being Earnest' the charades of a landed bourgeoisie society are taken apart and this statement is one of the greatest takeaways from it. That the financial independence of such a class would leave them to do nothing can stunt their mind and leave them restless even as they live a life of comfort.

SO, while  being free can be preferred to hard work but it is awfully hard to never do anything as humans are supposed to work by nature.

to leave the reader thinking and wandering on their own. without a resolution we are clueless to what happens next, and why it does. it may even cause suspension with the reader.

explanation:

in a place once known as north america, now known as panem, is a very rich city surrounded by twelve districts. every year because this very rich city, known as the capitol, is so rich and likes to think they control all the districts - which they do - there is something known as the hunger games! this is where two children, one boy and one girl from each district from the ages of twelve to eighteen, have to leave their families and compete in the hunger games, a live event that is aired on tv's all over panem. when katniss everdeen, aged sixteen from district 12, has to volunteer to take the place of her twelve-year-old sister prim after prim's name is called forth to become the 23rd member to compete in the 74th hunger games, she promises to prim that she will win! katniss doesn't believe she's coming out alive - but she's not going down without a fight.

because district 12 is so poor, katniss has been close to death many times from starvation but she's made it through it. but this is a different kind of close to death; this katniss doesn't know if she can survive.

she doesn't want to hurt, or kill anyone but when it comes down to it katniss' instinct is to survive. but when she starts to have confusing feelings about the boy from her district who is also her fellow contender, things get worse, and then she teams up with the girl from district 11 and only one person can survive. but who will it be? will her feelings get the better of her? will she let someone else win so they don't have to die? if katniss is going to win she's going to have to be brutal. she's going to have to kill!