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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
Key Examples in All the Light We Cannot See
One (1934): Something Rising
Explanation and Analysis—Germany's Economy:
In the following excerpt—an example of dramatic irony—Doerr writes about the conditions in pre-World War II Germany. Something appears to be "rising," in that the country's economic output has increased drastically:
Indeed it does seem to Werner, as the weeks go by, that something new is rising. Mine
production increases; unemployment drops. Meat appears at Sunday supper. Lamb, pork, wieners
—extravagances unheard of a year before. Frau Elena buys a new couch upholstered in orange
corduroy, and a range with burners in black rings; three new Bibles arrive from the consistory in
Berlin; a laundry boiler is delivered to the back door. Werner gets new trousers; Jutta gets her own
pair of shoes. Working telephones ring in the houses of neighbors.
Related Themes:
Twelve (1974): Sea of Flames
Explanation and Analysis—The Sea of Flames:
In the following passage from Section 12, towards the end of the novel, Doerr includes a vivid description of the Sea of Flames, albeit an unexpectedly ironic one:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It is cut, polished; for a breath, it passes between the hands of men. Another hour, another day, another year. Lump of carbon no larger than a chestnut. Mantled with algae, bedecked with barnacles. Crawled over by snails. It stirs among the pebbles.
Related Themes:
