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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 6: North Carolina
Explanation and Analysis—The Freedom Trail:
In The Underground Railroad, irony often runs parallel to myth and undercuts self-comforting fictions in the process. Upon her arrival in North Carolina, Cora stumbles across a gruesome display of violence that exposes the horrific incongruence between reality and ideal:
"The road," Cora said, "the Freedom Trail, you called it. How far does it go?"
It extended as far as there were bodies to feed it, Martin said. Putrefying bodies, bodies consumed by carrion eaters were constantly replaced, but the heading always advanced.
Related Themes:
Chapter 11: Mabel
Explanation and Analysis—Cursed Snake:
In the novel’s final chapters, the story yields one of its most powerful moments of dramatic irony as it turns to Mabel’s escape and reveals her tragic end to readers, though Cora never finds out:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The snake found her not long into her return. She was wending through a cluster of stiff reeds when she disturbed its rest. The cottonmouth bit her twice, in the calf and deep in the meat of her thigh. No sound but pain. Mabel refused to believe it. It was a water snake, it had to be. Ornery but harmless. When her mouth went minty and her leg tingled, she knew. She made it another mile. She had dropped her sack along the way, lost her course in the black water. She could have made it farther—working Randall land had made her strong, strong in body if nothing else—but she stumbled onto a bed of soft moss and it felt right. She said, Here, and the swamp swallowed her up.
Related Themes:
