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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 1
Explanation and Analysis—Self-Consciousness:
In Chapter 1, the narrator describes the moment he found out that he was Black, after a teacher asked all the white students to stand up. This unforgettable memory is marked by dramatic irony:
The teacher looked at me, and calling my name said, “You sit down for the present, and rise with the others.” I did not quite understand her, and questioned, “Ma’am?” She repeated with a softer tone in her voice, “You sit down now, and rise with the others.” I sat down dazed. I saw and heard nothing. When the others were asked to rise I did not know it.
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Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Open Doors:
In Chapter 8, the narrator uses a metaphor to emphasize the situational irony involved in his success as a musician:
Unlock with LitCharts A+By mastering ragtime I gained several things; first of all, I gained the title of professor. […] Through it I also gained a friend who was the means by which I escaped from this lower world. And, finally, I secured a wedge which has opened to me more doors and made me a welcome guest than my playing of Beethoven and Chopin could ever have done.
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Chapter 10
Explanation and Analysis—The Texan's Logic:
In Chapter 10, the narrator passes for white and listens to a conversation between a Texan and a former Union soldier. The Union soldier uses logos when he points out the situational irony of the anti-intermarriage laws in the South:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[“]As to the mulatto South, if you Southerners have one boast that is stronger than another, it is your women; you put them on a pinnacle of purity and virtue and bow down in a chivalric worship before them; yet you talk and act as though, should you treat the Negro fairly and take the anti-intermarriage laws off your statute books, these same women would rush into the arms of black lovers and husbands. It’s a wonder to me that they don’t rise up and resent the insult.”
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Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Captial Joke:
In Chapter 11, when the narrator has decided to pass for white, he comments on the humorous dramatic irony of his position. There is also situational irony in the narrator's inability to point out the dramatic irony without ruining it:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The anomaly of my social position often appealed strongly to my sense of humor. I frequently smiled inwardly at some remark not altogether complimentary to people of color; and more than once I felt like declaiming, “I am a colored man. Do I not disprove the theory that one drop of Negro blood renders a man unfit?” Many a night when I returned to my room after an enjoyable evening, I laughed heartily over what struck me as the capital joke I was playing.
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