O Pioneers! Literary Devices

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

Explanation and Analysis—No Payoff:

In Part 1, Chapter 2, the narrator remarks on the situational irony in John Bergson's death:

Now, when he had at last struggled out of debt, he was going to die himself. He was only forty-six, and had, of course, counted upon more time.

Explanation and Analysis—Apart From the Soil:

In Part 4, Chapter 1, Emil returns home from Mexico, and Alexandra reflects on the young adult he has become. There is situational irony in the pride and satisfaction she feels:

Out of her father’s children there was one who was fit to cope with the world, who had not been tied to the plow, and who had a personality apart from the soil. And that, she reflected, was what she had worked for. She felt well satisfied with her life.

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Explanation and Analysis—No Sweetheart:

In Part 4, Chapter 1, at a celebration at the French church, Amédée asks Emil for help with a prank the men are going to play on the women. Amédée does not realize the dramatic irony of his request:

The only difficulty was the candle in Marie’s [fortune telling] tent; perhaps, as Emil had no sweetheart, he would oblige the boys by blowing out the candle. Emil said he would undertake to do that.

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O Pioneers!: Irony 3 key examples

Definition of Irony