If Beale Street Could Talk

by James Baldwin

If Beale Street Could Talk: Irony 1 key example

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
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.