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Similes
Chapter 17
Explanation and Analysis—Mystery and Irony:
The Judge makes a paradoxical claim about mystery and people's desire to be told mysteries as he orates around a fire, which the ex-priest Tobin rightfully notices is ironic:
There is no mystery to it, he said.... Your heart’s desire is to be told some mystery. The mystery is that there is no mystery. He rose and moved away into the darkness beyond the fire. Aye, said the expriest watching, his pipe cold in his teeth. And no mystery. As if he were no mystery himself, the bloody old hoodwinker.
Related Themes:
Chapter 22
Explanation and Analysis—Speak with the Dead?:
Chapter 22 ends with the kid attempting to help an old woman, but ironically she was dead the whole time:
Unlock with LitCharts A+He spoke to her in a low voice. He told her that he was an American and that he was a long way from the country of his birth and that he had no family and that he had traveled much and seen many things and had been at war and endured hardships. He told her that he would convey her to a safe place, some party of her countrypeople who would welcome her and that she should join them for he could not leave her in this place or she would surely die.... She was just a dried shell and she had been dead in that place for years.
Related Themes:
