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Definition of Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given situation, and that of the... read full definition
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given... read full definition
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a... read full definition
Book 5, Chapter 71
Explanation and Analysis—Politics:
In Book 5, Rachel and her sisters have grown up and apart. They've taken drastically different paths, and any empathy Rachel has for the Congolese has evaporated now that she lives in the wealthy and white enclaves of Africa. When she flippantly and hyperbolically describes the Republic of Congo, there's dramatic irony in the fact that her perspective is so different from Leah's, whose explanation of the political strife in the Congo was just pages earlier. The following is Rachel's description:
I received quite an education about politics, as an embassy wife. The French Congo and the newly independent Republic of Congo are separated by one mere river and about a million miles of contemporaneous modern thinking. It’s because they tried to go and do it all for themselves over there, and don’t have the temperament.
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