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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
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:
