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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 2
Explanation and Analysis—I Love You:
On the last night before they leave Aleppo, Nuri and Afra hide in their garden hideout while soldiers ransack their home. This situation leads to an ironic moment in which Nuri's nihilistic attitude is revealed as the alarming state of mind that it is. At this point, Nuri has tried for weeks to convince Afra to leave the city, but Afra refuses to leave, as she is still mourning their son Sami. As the night passes, Nuri contemplates whether he should kill his wife to spare her the suffering of grief:
I blinked in the darkness. It was impenetrable. In her sleep, Afra sighed. I asked myself if I should break her neck, put her out of her misery, give her the peace she wanted. Sami’s grave was in this garden. She would be close to him. She wouldn’t need to leave him. All her self-torture would be over.
“Nuri,” she said.
“Hmmm?”
“I love you.”
I didn’t reply, and her words became part of the darkness; I let them sink into the soil, into the waterlogged earth.
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Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Afra's Blindness:
Afra's blindness leads to a number of ironic situations in which her ignorance leads her to act incongruously with her surroundings. In Chapter 3, as they depart from Aleppo, Afra and Nuri wait in Bab Al-Faraj for a smuggler to pick them up. Next to them is a corpse that Afra cannot see. Nuri, trying to spare her the horror, does not inform her of the corpse:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The dead man was lying on his back with one arm bent over his head. The man was probably in his mid-twenties, wearing a black sweater and black jeans. I didn’t tell Afra that he was there. [...] “It’s beautiful here,” she said. “I know exactly where we are.”
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Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Nuri's Self-Hatred :
In Chapter 5, the novel uses situational irony to convey the disparity between Nuri and Afra's feelings for each other. Nuri believes himself to be unworthy of Afra's love. Afra, however, is unaware of this. When they wake one morning and Afra discovers the bowl of flowers that Nuri picked while sleepwalking, she is delighted that he would give her a gift, not knowing that he did not pick them for her:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The smile still seems to be lingering on her lips, and I don’t want to spoil it. It horrifies me that a gift from me can have the power to make her smile now, even if it is so slight as to be almost nonexistent. All those times I wanted to be able to affect her, to bring some light to her eyes, and now I hate it that I can, because it means that she loves me and that she has been hoping for me to love her. But I am no longer worthy of her, or her forgiveness.
Related Themes:
Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—The Sun and Honey:
Nuri's decision to become a beekeeper is an unconventional choice for the son of a textile worker. To reflect the unusual decision, This scene, in which Nuri announces his decision to his father, contains a number of subtle ironies:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"So you are giving me a month’s notice?”
I nodded.
“As if I am not your father.”
This time I did not nod.
He looked out the window, the sun blazing in his eyes, making them the color of honey.
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