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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 11
Explanation and Analysis—Run on the Bank:
Marijia is wrapped up in situational irony when a false run on the local bank leads her to withdraw all her money. Withdrawing her money turns out to be a big mistake:
[...T]oward afternoon she got into the bank and got her money—all in big silver dollars, a handkerchief full. When she had once got her hands on them her fear vanished, and she wanted to put them back again; but the man at the window was savage, and said that the bank would receive no more deposits from those who had taken part in the run. [...] The cause of the panic had been the attempt of a policeman to arrest a drunken man in a saloon next door, which had drawn a crowd at the hour the people were on their way to work, and so started the 'run.
Related Themes:
Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis—Reading Gaol:
When describing Jurgis's miserable state in jail, the author employs verbal irony and an allusion to “The Ballad of Reading Gaol." This was a poem written by the British author Oscar Wilde, who was also unjustly imprisoned. The narrator ends the chapter with this enigmatic statement:
Unlock with LitCharts A+So wrote a poet, to whom the world had dealt its justice—
I know not whether Laws be right,
Or whether Laws be wrong;
All that we know who lie in gaol
Is that the wall is strong.
And they do well to hide their hell,
For in it things are done
That Son of God nor son of Man
Ever should look upon.
Related Themes:
Chapter 24
Explanation and Analysis—A Rich Feller:
A drunken Freddie fumbles with his wallet, clumsily shuffling around a huge wad of cash as he complains to the homeless Jurgis about lacking funds. Sinclair brings a sense of realism and situational irony to the scene through both Freddie's words and his use of mid-century American English:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Looks like a lot, hey?” said Master Freddie, fumbling with it. “Fool you, though, ole chappie—they’re all little ones! I’ll be busted in one week more, sure thing—word of honor. An’ not a cent more till the first—hic—guv’ner’s orders—hic—not a cent, by Harry! Nuff to set a feller crazy, it is. I sent him a cable, this af’noon—thass one reason more why I’m goin’ home. ‘Hangin’ on the verge of starvation,’ I says—‘for the honor of the family—hic—sen’ me some bread. Hunger will compel me to join you—Freddie.’ Thass what I wired him, by Harry, an’ I mean it—I’ll run away from school, b’God, if he don’t sen’ me some.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 25
Explanation and Analysis—Agencies of Corruption:
When they describe the alliance between Chicago's lawmakers, its criminals, and its wealthy elite, Sinclair's narrator employs situational irony. The American judicial and financial system, in their view, is a brotherhood of thieves:
Unlock with LitCharts A+All of these agencies of corruption were banded together, and leagued in blood brotherhood with the politician and the police; more often than not they were one and the same person—the police captain would own the brothel he pretended to raid, the politician would open his headquarters in his saloon [...] On election day all these powers of vice and crime were one power; they could tell within one per cent what the vote of their district would be, and they could change it at an hour's notice.
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