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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
Key Examples in The Secret Life of Bees
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—The Gun:
In this moment the author uses situational irony and a flashback to show how Lily remembers about her mother’s death and her own heartbreaking part in it. As she recalls accidentally shooting her mother with T. Ray’s gun as a child, Lily tries to make sense of the pieces that never form a full picture:
Time folded in on itself then. What is left lies in clear yet disjointed pieces in my head. The gun shining like a toy in her hand, how he snatched it away and waved it around. The gun on the floor. Bending to pick it up. The noise that exploded around us. This is what I know about myself. She was all I wanted. And I took her away.
Related Themes:
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Making the Paper:
After they escape from Sylvan, Lily buys a newspaper to see if she and Rosaleen have been mentioned after fleeing the jail. Kidd uses allusion and situational irony to show how Lily’s private crisis pales beside the larger, more chaotic events of the 1960s:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I dropped a dime into the slot and took one of the papers, wondering if the story was inside somewhere. Rosaleen and I squatted on the ground in an alley and spread out the paper, opening every page. It was full of Malcolm X, Saigon, the Beatles, tennis at Wimbledon, and a motel in Jackson, Mississippi, that closed down rather than accept Negro guests, but nothing about me and Rosaleen. Sometimes you want to fall on your knees and thank God in heaven for all the poor news reporting that goes on in the world.
Related Themes:
Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—How Special:
Kidd often employs hyperbole along with verbal and situational irony to show how Lily shaped her identity around her pain as a child. In this passage, Lily reflects on her past and how she exaggerated her suffering to place herself at the center of her own story:
Unlock with LitCharts A+In a weird way I must have loved my little collection of hurts and wounds. They provided me with some real nice sympathy, with the feeling I was exceptional. I was the girl abandoned by her mother. I was the girl who kneeled on grits. What a special case I was.
Related Themes:
