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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 7
Explanation and Analysis—More Sugar?:
In Chapter 7, Millat, Magid, and Irie have a peculiar conversation with J. P. Hamilton, an old White man they visit for a school community initiative. He terrifies the children with stories of his military deployment in Congo, where he claimed to be able to recognize African men by the whiteness of their teeth. He then expounds on the importance of teeth and dental hygiene, but ironically offers the children more sugar just as he does so:
Mr. Hamilton leaned back contemplatively in his chair. “One sometimes forgets the significance of one’s teeth. We’re not like the lower animals—teeth replaced regularly and all that—we’re of the mammals, you see. And mammals only get two chances, with teeth. More sugar?”
The children, mindful of their two chances, declined.
The situational irony in this passage comes from the fact that Hamilton insists that one must take care of one's teeth while simultaneously offering more sugar, which can cause cavities and other dental problems. Hamilton's irony is elevated by the racist implications of his discussion of teeth. He thinks of teeth as a marker of hierarchy: that mammals, unlike "low animals," must take special care of their teeth. In a similar hierarchy, he believes that stereotypical white teeth on Black people are also a marker of their relative position in society.
Despite this belief in the importance of preventing tooth decay, Hamilton remains committed to the indulgence of sugary tea, a staple beverage in England. He apparently does not consider, though, that British tea was first imported from South Asia, the product of colonial conquest. Thus the simple, two-word question, "More sugar?," reveals the complicated irony of a colonial world.
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Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis—Children and Scientists:
In Chapter 16, Marcus considers the state of his career while waiting to meet with Magid. He notes the irony between science fiction and science. Science fiction includes inventions far beyond what real science is capable of, while the profound achievements in science that are worthy of science fiction often go unnoticed by anyone but experts. He describes this in reference to his son Oscar's love of fictional robots:
While the robots in Oscar’s mind were singing, dancing, and empathizing with his every joy and fear, over at MIT some poor bastard was slowly and painstakingly trying to get a machine to re-create the movements of a single human thumb. On the flip side of the coin, the simplest biological facts, the structure of animal cells for instance, were a mystery to all but fourteen-year-old children and scientists like himself; the former spending their time drawing them in class, the latter injecting them with foreign DNA.
While many science fiction stories show humanoid robots with a wide variety of skills and abilities, Marcus notes that real robots are not even close to this level. (This was certainly the case in 1992, but this passage is striking in the present day, when artificial intelligence can indeed sing, dance, and seemingly empathize.) On the other hand, the specifics of biology remain unknown to most people, even as advancements in modern medicine are worthy themselves of science fiction.
Marcus points out this irony because of his frustration with the criticism of his Futuremouse project. Between "fourteen-year-old children and scientists like himself" who understand biology, there "flowed a great ocean of idiots, conspiracists, religious lunatics, presumptuous novelists, animal-rights activists, students of politics, and all the other breeds of fundamentalists who professed strange objections to his life’s work." Believing fully in his own ambitions, Marcus bemoans that the great majority of people do not even understand the fundamentals of his work. This is especially true because science fiction only educates them on superfluous, seemingly impossible topics. This shows Marcus's Chalfenist self-confidence in the face of reasonable criticism.
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Chapter 20
Explanation and Analysis—In a Perfect World:
At the novel's climax in Chapter 20, it is revealed that Dr. Perret is alive and has been mentoring Marcus in the Futuremouse project. After this revelation, the narrator flashes back to the war to reveal how he survived. Archie has the doctor cornered but hesitates to kill him. Dr. Perret tries to urge Archie to act boldly, referencing the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre to spur him on. Archie waffles, eventually proposing to flip a coin, and if it lands heads, he will execute Dr. Perret. But in a moment of situational irony, Dr. Perret shoots Archie before he can even find out how the coin landed:
The coin rose and flipped as a coin would rise and flip every time in a perfect world, flashing its light and then revealing its dark enough times to mesmerize a man. Then, at some point in its triumphant ascension, it began to arc, and the arc went wrong, and Archibald realized that it was not coming back to him at all but going behind him, a fair way behind him, and he turned round to watch it fall in the dirt. He was bending to pick it up when a shot rang out, and he felt a blistering pain in his right thigh.
Archie and Dr. Perret both seemingly agree to the terms (though Perret, at gunpoint, has little alternative). But when Archie loses the coin, Dr. Perret takes the opportunity to try to escape. The irony comes when it is revealed that the coin lands tails: "'Why did you do that?' said Archie, furious, grabbing the gun off the doctor, easily and forcefully. 'It’s tails. See? It’s tails. Look. Tails. It was tails.'" Dr. Perret never needed to shoot Archie, as Archie was not going to shoot him.
The ironic situation contrasts Archie's dedication to the whims of fate with Dr. Perret's desire for decisive action. Archie decides to leave the massive decision of whether to shoot Dr. Perret to a coin flip and seems entirely happy to follow the coin's instructions. This passage underlines Archie's reliance on fate throughout the novel, all deriving from this most stressful moment of his life.
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