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Hyperbole
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
Irony
Explanation and Analysis—The Grandmother’s Death:
In an example of both foreshadowing and situational irony, the grandmother decides, at the beginning of the story, to dress up for her family’s road trip so that, in the event of an accident, she would die looking like “a lady.” The following passage captures this ironic foreshadowing:
[T]he grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.
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Explanation and Analysis—Meeting the Misfit:
At the beginning of the story, the Grandmother warns her son Bailey that, if they decide to go to Florida on their family road trip, they might run into an escaped convict called the Misfit, foreshadowing their eventual meeting with him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Now look here, Bailey,” she said, “see here, read this,” and she stood with one hand on her thin hip and the other rattling the newspaper at his bald head. “Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did.”
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Explanation and Analysis—The Wrong State:
In an example of situational irony, the grandmother manipulates her family into taking a detour during their road trip in order to visit a plantation she’d once been to as a child, only to realize that the plantation was not only not on the road they were on, but was in an entirely different state. When she realizes this, she jumps, setting off a cascade of events that leads to a car accident. The following passage captures the irony of this moment:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“It’s not much farther,” the grandmother said and just as she said it, a horrible thought came to her. The thought was so embarrassing that she turned red in the face and her eyes dilated and her feet jumped up, upsetting her valise in the corner. The instant the valise moved, the newspaper top she had over the basket under it rose with a snarl and Pitty Sing, the cat, sprang onto Bailey’s shoulder.
The children were thrown to the floor and their mother, clutching the baby, was thrown out the door onto the ground; the old lady was thrown into the front seat.
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Explanation and Analysis—The Misfit’s Manners:
In an example of situational irony, the Misfit—a violent murderer—initially treats the grandmother and her family with polite manners, as seen in the following passage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“I’m sorry I don’t have on a shirt before you ladies,” he said, hunching his shoulders slightly. “We buried our clothes that we had on when we escaped and we’re just making do until we can get better.”
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