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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
Key Examples in If Beale Street Could Talk
Troubled About My Soul
Explanation and Analysis—The Ridiculous Question:
At the beginning of the novel, Tish visits Fonny in jail to tell him she is pregnant. After she breaks the news, Fonny, still in a daze, asks Tish a "ridiculous question," to which she responds with her characteristic verbal irony:
He asked me the ridiculous question: "Are you sure?"
"No. I ain't sure. I'm just trying to mess with your mind."
Then he grinned. He grinned because, then, he knew. "What we going to do?" he asked me—just like a little boy.
"Well we ain't going to drown it. So, I guess we'll have to raise it."
Fonny threw back his head, and laughed, he laughed till tears come down his face. So, then, I felt that the first part, that I'd been so frightened of, would be all right.
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