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Imagery
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 23
Explanation and Analysis—Police Cell:
In the following example of situational irony from Chapter 23, Christopher recounts his time spent in prison for assaulting a police officer:
It was nice in the police cell. It was almost a perfect cube, 2 meters long by 2 meters wide by 2 meters high. It contained approximately 8 cubic meters of air. It had a small window with bars and, on the opposite side, a metal door with a long, thin hatch near the floor for sliding trays of food into the cell [...].
Christopher describes the police cell he's imprisoned in as "nice," a statement that ironically subverts expectation. Almost no one enjoys being imprisoned. This situational irony reveals a deeper truth about Christopher's perspective and experience of the world: he is overwhelmed by the apparently lawless landscape of social interaction, desperate for a set of rules or instructions to follow. Interactions with police follow a script and are predictable to him; thus, these interactions are comforting.
Christopher also feels comforted by the police station because it is a familiar setting. He has not been imprisoned before; he has, however, read many of the Sherlock Holmes stories and watched detective television/film. Christopher views the police through a lens crafted for him by fiction. It is in this rose-tinted, fictional lens that he finds comfort, even during the disturbing experience of imprisonment.
Related Themes:
Chapter 149
Explanation and Analysis—Christopher's Confusion:
In the following example of dramatic irony from Chapter 149, Christopher discovers letters that his mother has written to him, postmarked after her death.
I was really confused because Mother had never worked as a secretary for a firm that made things out of steel. [...] And Mother had never written a letter to me before. [....] [T]he letter was posted on 16 October 1997, which was 18 months after Mother had died.
In the above passage, it becomes clear to the reader that Christopher's father lied about his mother's heart attack. Christopher does not yet understand this, failing to piece the whole puzzle together until a later chapter. Instead, he imagines that the letters are not actually for him, or that someone has assumed his mother's identity. Dramatic irony results from Christopher's assumptions, as it takes him longer than the reader to discover his father's dissembling. Christopher is naturally a truthful person. He lacks the ability to lie outright and tends to presume the same of others—especially his close family members. Christopher's own relationship with truth and trust likely delays his realization of his father's lies. He is in denial or simply cannot fathom the idea that someone he trusts would lie to him so blatantly.
Related Themes:
Chapter 229
Explanation and Analysis—Favorite Dream:
In the following example of situational irony from Chapter 229, Christopher describes one of his favorite dreams to the reader:
And when I was asleep I had one of my favorite dreams. [...] And in the dream nearly everyone on earth is dead, because they have caught a virus. But it's not like a normal virus. [...] And eventually there is no one left in the world except people who don't look at other people's faces [...] and these people are all special people like me.
Christopher's "favorite dream," in which almost everyone on earth dies, would undoubtedly count as a nightmare for most people. Furthermore, while Christopher often does not enjoy social interactions, he does not want to be entirely without the important people in his life—his mother, his father, Siobhan. In his dream landscape, these people would cease to exist. This ironic dream scenario digs at a deeper truth about Christopher's psyche. He lives in a world not build to accommodate people like him; and he longs, as anyone would, for an alternate reality in which he can simply exist in comfort. He wishes for a world without the inscrutable rules he struggles to comprehend—rules that leave him feeling confused and alienated, even from those who are otherwise familiar to him.
Related Themes:
