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Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—A Fox :
In a scene suffused with dramatic irony, an adolescent Demon fails to understand a euphemistic conversation between Stoner and his friends:
Extra Eye said, “A fox is going to whelp her pups, Stoner. You’re lucky it’s just the one.” And Stoner said he’d better watch it because some people are smarter than you think [...]
Stoner asked what they would do if they found a cherry Camaro they wanted to buy, but it came with a trailer on the back. “To buy, or just take for a hard run?” Extra Eye wanted to know, and Reeker asked, “How firm is the hitch, man?” All three of them laughing their asses off. I sat there [...] confused by all that was said.
While Demon's mother is in the bathroom, Stoner and his friends have a vulgar conversation, using language that they know Demon cannot understand. One of Stoner's friends, whom Demon nicknames Extra Eye, notes that "a fox is going to whelp her pups," describing Stoner as "lucky that it's just the one." Though Demon, who is still a child, does not understand Extra Eye's metaphor, the reader perceives that Extra Eye is talking about Demon. He suggests, in a veiled manner, that women are unavoidably accompanied by their children.
Using a different euphemism, Stoner asks his friends if they would purchase a desirable car if "it came with a trailer on the back." Again, he refers metaphorically to Demon as the "trailer" that accompanies "a cherry Camaro," by which he means Demon's mother. His friends continue the metaphor, making sexual jokes about Demon's mother that leave him "confused." This scene highlights both Demon's innocence and the rude, demeaning attitudes of Stoner and his friends.
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Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis—The Fruit and the Fall :
The novel alludes to the biblical story of the temptation of Eve by Satan in a passage that describes the opioid crisis that profoundly affected Appalachia after the drug OxyContin was approved by the FDA, or the Federal Drug Administration, in 1995:
What’s an oxy, I’d asked. That November it was still a shiny new thing. OxyContin, God’s gift for the laid-off deep-hole man with his back and neck bones grinding like bags of gravel. For the bent-over lady pulling double shifts at Dollar General with her shot knees and ADHD grandkids to raise by herself. For every football player with some of this or that torn up, and the whole world riding on his getting back in the game. This was our deliverance. The tree was shaken and yes, we did eat of the apple.
Demon’s mother passes away after overdosing on OxyContin, a highly addictive painkiller. Here, Demon describes the drug, sarcastically, as “God’s gift” to the various people experiencing chronic pain and injury in Lee County who become increasingly reliant upon it as a means of alleviating pain. He continues to use religious language in an ironic manner, describing the drug as “our deliverance” and adding that “[t]he tree was shaken and yes, we did eat of the apple.” Here, he references the Fall as described in the Bible. Much as Adam and Eve, in the biblical account, are tempted by a serpent, (generally interpreted as Satan) to eat a fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, so too have the people of Lee County been “tempted” by a pill that seems to solve all of their problems. As in the biblical account, yielding to this temptation has dire consequences for those who become rapidly dependent upon these pills.
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Chapter 23
Explanation and Analysis—Repossession :
While describing the difficult financial predicament of the McCobs, Demon highlights the situational irony of the fact that those who most need money are often barred from finding gainful employment:
Meanwhile the McCobbs were in some serious shit. Their car got repossessed. It was a late-model Dodge Spirit, leased, sky blue, none of that I guess being the point. Mr. McCobb couldn’t get to work anymore, so he lost his job, was the point. You tell me why it makes sense for guys wanting money from you to come and take your car, so you can’t earn another dime. That’s the grown-up version I guess of teachers yelling at you for hating school.
After living on Creaky Farm, Demon is fostered by the McCobbs, who are deeply anxious about money and struggle to climb out of debt. After defaulting on their payments, the family car is repossessed, leaving Mr. McCobb without any means of transportation. Unable to get to work, he loses his job. Here, Demon points to the situational irony of this predicament. The McCobbs owe money to their creditors, who respond by repossessing their car, ensuring that the McCobbs cannot repay the debt. He compares this to "teachers yelling at you for hating school," a situation that he similarly regards as ironic, as the teachers' response further contributes to the students' aversion.
Here, the novel's critique of vehicle repossession mirrors Charles Dickens's critique of Victorian debtors' prisons in David Copperfield, upon which Demon Copperhead is loosely based. Those imprisoned for their inability to pay their debts, Dickens argues, are unable to work or alleviate their situation due to their imprisonment. Kingsolver follows Dickens in highlighting the brutal ironies of poverty.
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Chapter 42
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Nurse:
Demon uses an ironic simile that compares Dori to a nurse when she injects fentanyl, an addictive synthetic opioid:
The next surprise won’t ever leave my brain. The kit she took out of her purse. The spoon she used first, to scrape the patch. The lighter she held underneath. The cotton ball, the syringe, pulling the cap off the needle and holding it in her mouth like a nurse giving booster shots. I don’t know what I said but she could tell I was scared, and she was sweet with me, the same voice she used with Jip. She’d been saving this, because the first time you do it with somebody, they say it’s the best you’ll ever feel in your life.
After the homecoming parade, Dori takes Demon to her house, where she checks up on her terminally ill father, Vester, and, surprising Demon, reveals that she has fentanyl for them both to share. He describes her as holding the needle in her mouth "like a nurse giving booster shots." This simile suggests that Dori is experienced with abusing drugs, as she goes through the steps in a knowledgeable and steady manner. The simile is also situationally ironic, however, as Dori is not a health practitioner offering health care, but rather, a young addict who has fallen victim to the drug companies that target areas like Lee County. Rather than administering medicine, she introduces Demon to a dangerous drug that ultimately has profound and negative effects on his life.
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