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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—Santy Came:
Furlong’s exchange with Sheila in Chapter 3 comes wrapped in dramatic irony. While writing her letter to Santa in the weeks leading up to Christmas, his daughter looks up and asks him about his own childhood memories. Furlong finds himself caught between her canny intuition and his lies:
“Did Santy ever come to you, Daddy?" Sheila now asked, eerily…
"Santy came, surely," Furlong said. "He brought me a jigsaw of a farm one year."
"A jigsaw? Was that all?"
Furlong swallowed. "Finish your letter, a leanbh.”
Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Sunday Mass:
In Chapter 6, Furlong heads to Sunday mass bearing “a fresh type of reluctance”—not least because of his prior visit to St. Margaret's. Sitting in the church pews, he experiences the Communion service in the harsh light of situational irony:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The Mass, that day felt long […]. During the sermon, his gaze followed the Stations of the Cross: Jesus taking up his cross and falling, meeting his mother, the women of Jerusalem, falling twice more before being stripped of his garments, being nailed to the cross and dying, being laid in the tomb. When the consecration was over and it came time to go up and receive Communion, Furlong stayed contrarily where he was, with his back against the wall.
Related Themes:
Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Father:
Furlong discovers the identity of his father in a sudden, shattering moment of situational irony. After a visit to Mrs. Wilson’s house prompts her servant to comment on his striking resemblance to Ned, he realizes in Chapter 7 what he should have known all along:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But this did not seem likely and he could not help thinking over how down-hearted Ned had been in himself after Furlong’s mother had passed away, and how they had always gone to Mass and eaten together, the way they stayed up talking at the fire at night, what sense it made…This was the man who had polished his shoes and tied the laces, who’d bought him his first razor and taught him how to shave.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Coal-Carrying Santa:
Furlong imagines a situationally ironic simile during his coal delivery trips on Christmas Eve. In Chapter 7, he visits so many hard-pressed households that his presence alone seems itself to be a gift:
Unlock with LitCharts A+In some of the houses, out the country, it was clear that people were struggling; at least six or seven times he was drawn to one side, quietly, to be asked if what was owing could be put on the slate […]. In more than one house, children, off from school, ran out to greet him, as though he was Santa Claus, just bringing the bag of coal.
Related Themes:
