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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 3
Explanation and Analysis—Alice's Virtues:
In the following passage from Chapter 3, Steinbeck narrates Cyrus Trask's thought process, attempting to deduce his reasons for marrying Alice. Cyrus's views on family and women are typical for a man of his time period, and Steinbeck uses verbal irony to highlight their ridiculousness:
Alice Trask had a number of admirable qualities . . . . She was not very pretty, so there was no need to watch her. . . . Whether she liked children or not no one ever knew. She was not asked, and she never said anything unless she was asked. From Cyrus' point of view this was possibly the greatest of her virtues.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Gifts:
Alice is a bit of an odd figure in Adam's life, functioning as a pseudo-mother but maintaining emotional distance from both of the young boys. Eventually, after seeing Alice smile to herself, Adam is struck with the impulse to give her little gifts in secret. However, in a touch of dramatic irony at the end of Chapter 3, Alice assumes that Charles is giving her the little gifts instead of Adam:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"You have to know him," [Alice] repeated. "For a long time he has given me little presents, pretty things you wouldn't think he'd even notice. But he doesn't give them right out. He hides them where he knows I'll find them. And you can look at him for hours and he won't ever give the slightest sign he did it. You have to know him."
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Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Liza's Drunkenness:
In the following passage from Chapter 5, the narrator uses situational irony to describe an important—and hypocritical—development in Liza Hamilton's religious mores:
Unlock with LitCharts A+When Liza was about seventy her elimination slowed up and her doctor told her to take a tablespoon of port wine for medicine. She forced down the first spoonful, making a crooked face, but it was not so bad. And from that moment she never drew a completely sober breath.
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Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Charles's Shyness:
In Chapter 6, Steinbeck describes Charles's life during Adam's absence. Without his brother or father for company, Charles turns to sex workers for human companionship, though he barely views these women as human. Using situational irony, Steinbeck elucidates the nature of these relationships:
Unlock with LitCharts A+There is great safety for a shy man with a whore. Having been paid for, and in advance, she has become a commodity, and a shy man can be gay with her and even brutal to her.
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Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Tannery Workers:
In the following passage from Chapter 8, the narrator discusses Mr. Ames's murder, as well as his employee's response. As is stylistically typical for Steinbeck, the passage employs verbal irony and contradiction, implying different conclusions about the employees than those that are directly stated:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Since the owner's house was burned and the owner ostensibly burned with it, the employees of the tannery, out of respect, did not go to work. They hung around the burned house, offering to help in any way they could, feeling official and generally getting in the way.
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Explanation and Analysis—Freedom and Sex:
In the following excerpt from Chapter 8, the narrator speculates on sexuality and humanity in an attempt to reveal aspects of Cathy's character to readers. In this discussion, the narrator uses verbal irony as a device for critique:
Unlock with LitCharts A+What freedom men and women could have, were they not constantly tricked and trapped and enslaved and tortured by their sexuality! The only drawback in that freedom is that without it one would not be a human. One would be a monster.
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