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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
42. Darl
Explanation and Analysis—Cash's Tools:
In Chapter 42, the Bundren family has just prevailed in the river, but Cash’s leg was broken in the process. As he speaks incoherently (likely due to shock and pain), the family tries to understand what he is asking for. In an ironic twist, he says nothing of his legs or Addie's coffin but instead worries about the fate of his tools:
He tried to say something. Dewey Dell wiped his mouth again.
“What’s he say?” Vernon said.
“What is it, Cash?” Dewey Dell said. She leaned down. “His tools,” she said.
It is ironic that in this moment of crisis, Cash is not worried for himself, his mother's body, or anyone else in the family. This exemplifies Cash's distance from reality and his preoccupation with his own world, which sometimes comes at the expense of his and other people's well-being.
This scene also reveals that Cash does not see himself as capable without the tools—the blow of losing them would be just as devastating (if not more so) than losing his own life. The tools are an essential part of Cash's schematic of the world, meaning that what they represent—Cash's ability to build and serve the family—is of utmost importance to him. Cash's ironic concern for the tools exposes how he views his role and worth within the Bundren family.
45. Moseley
Explanation and Analysis—Moseley's Perspective :
Chapter 45, which Moseley narrates, offers another glimpse at Dewey Dell’s difficult position. The pharmacist's perspective lends dramatic irony to Dewey Dell's situation:
So I thought maybe her ma or somebody had sent her in for some of this female dope and she was ashamed to ask for it. I knew she couldn’t have a complexion like hers and use it herself, let alone not being much more than old enough to barely know what it was for.
In Moseley’s initial, at-a-glance assessment, Dewey Dell appears as a young girl who is too shy and sheltered to comfortably ask for her mother’s drugs. These are ironic assumptions because Dewey Dell is actually newly motherless and seeking an abortion after being taken advantage of by Lafe. The moment is ironic because readers are keenly aware of these realities but, as a stranger, Moseley is not.
Despite appearances and what would be age-appropriate for a girl like Dewey Dell, she has come to the pharmacy for very mature and difficult reasons. Moseley’s perception of her youth highlights how strange and unfair Dewey Dell’s situation is. She does not comment on her own naivety in the chapters she narrates, nor do her brothers or father in their respective chapters, so this outside perspective puts the ironic contrast between appearance and reality on display.
Related Themes:
