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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
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Jar of Fingers:
When Sam is in the hospital recovering from the accident that maims his hand, he gets a very unusual package delivered to his bed. The situational irony and simile in this passage show the absurdity of Sam’s reaction to his own injury and how it unsettles the nurse:
One day a parcel came from the Abrolhos Islands, and the nurse with the juicy bum opened it for him and gasped. It was a preserve jar. In it, swimming in alcohol, were four fingers and the nub of a thumb. Someone had pasted a label on the glass which read: SAM’S PICKLES. He stared at it, then at the nurse, and laughed like a wounded dog. The nurse just looked at him lying there all gauzed and pale and handsome, laughing at his own fingers in a jar, and she wondered if he wasn’t the most stupid bugger she’d ever met in her life.
Related Themes:
Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Good and Evil:
Having seen that the Nedlands Monster was just a man after all, Quick feels let down and disillusioned about his own moral values. The situational irony and hyperbole in this passage reveal Quick’s struggle to accept moral ambiguity when he’s always believed strongly in the forces of good:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘So you’ve given away the old good and evil?’ asked Rose, amazed at all this rare talk from Quick.
‘No. No. I’ll stay a cop. But it’s not us and them anymore. It’s us and us and us. It’s always us. That’s what they never tell you. Geez, Rose, I just want to do right. But there’s no monsters, only people like us. Funny, but it hurts.’
Related Themes:
