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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 3
Explanation and Analysis—Like Gunshots:
The narrator uses a number of similes when describing a chaotic scene at the Golden Day, a seedy bar located near the college campus. A group of patients at a nearby mental hospital who frequent the bar have decided to strike back against the hospital orderly, named Supercargo, who has been assigned to keep them in line, brutally attacking him on the staircase after he attempts to restore order:
Supercargo grabbed wildly at the balustrade as they snatched his feet from beneath him and started down. His head bounced against the steps making a sound like a series of gunshots as they ran dragging him by his ankles, like volunteer firemen running with a hose. The crowd surged forward. Halley yelled near my ear. I saw the man being dragged toward the center of the room.
First, the narrator describes the sound of Supercargo’s head hitting the stairs as being “like a series of gunshots,” a simile that emphasizes the violence of the scene. Next, he describes the crowd of patients as being “like volunteer firemen running with a hose.” There is a degree of irony to this simile, as the patients are not restoring order or performing a public service, but rather creating a dangerous and chaotic scene.
Explanation and Analysis—College Alumni:
The narrator's description of the Golden Day, a bar where various illicit activities take place, is saturated with situational irony. Mr. Norton, one of the rich white trustees of the historically Black college attended by the narrator, believes strongly that education will help to “improve” the lives of African Americans, and consequently he donates extensively to the university. The narrator similarly believes in the transformative power of college education and is optimistic about the bright future that he has been promised. At the Golden Day, however, Norton and the narrator encounter a number of highly-educated African Americans who undermine this faith in education:
Many of the men had been doctors, lawyers, teachers, Civil Service workers; there were several cooks, a preacher, a politician, and an artist. One very nutty one had been a psychiatrist. Whenever I saw them I felt uncomfortable. They were supposed to be members of the professions toward which at various times I vaguely aspired myself, and even though they never seemed to see me I could never believe that they were really patients. Sometimes it appeared as though they played some vast and complicated game with me and the rest of the school folk [...]
After they arrive at the Golden Day, they are shortly followed by a group of patients from a nearby mental hospital. Though the narrator worries that the patients will present a negative image of African American culture and life to Mr. Norton, they soon learn that several of the patients are themselves alumni of the college. “Many of the men,” the narrator notes, “had been doctors, lawyers, teachers, Civil Service workers,” as well as “several cooks, a preacher, a politician, and an artist.” Ironically, one “very nutty patient” had, in fact, previously worked as a psychiatrist. They have not, then, been deprived of an education, as Mr. Norton might expect. Rather, most of them have received a good education, found success in various esteemed fields and professions, but were nevertheless eventually committed to an asylum. In this highly ironic scene, Ellison suggests that education alone is not enough to guarantee either personal success or racial equality.
Related Themes:
Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—The Founder:
At the sermon presented in the campus chapel, the narrator listens to a speech by Reverend Homer A. Barbee, from Chicago. In this darkly ironic scene, Barbee lavishes praise on the college’s founder, alluding to the Biblical figure of Moses:
And then his great struggle beginning. Picture it, my young friends: The clouds of darkness all over the land, black folk and white folk full of fear and hate, wanting to go forward, but each fearful of the other. A whole region is caught in a terrible tension. Everyone is perplexed with the question of what must be done to dissolve this fear and hatred that crouched over the land like a demon waiting to spring, and you know how he came and showed them the way.
Though Barbee describes a figure from the recent past, the Founder of the unnamed historically Black college that the narrator attends, he uses distinctly biblical language. As if describing a scene from the Bible, Barbee turns to the “beginning,” when “clouds of darkness” coerced the land and both Black and white people were “full of fear and hate [...] fearful of the other.” Amid this “terrible tension,” the Founder “came and showed them the way,” leading them all to a brighter and more peaceful future. Barbee, then, compares the Founder to the biblical figure of Moses, who, in the Bible, parted the Red Sea and led his people out of captivity in Egypt. This allusion, then, is ironic in the context of the story. Barbee’s praise is ultimately exaggerated, as the Founder is no biblical prophet, and America, as presented in the novel, is still afflicted with racial inequality, tension, and violence.
Explanation and Analysis—Horatio Alger:
In a deeply ironic passage that is dense with allusions and metaphors, the narrator describes a sermon at the college chapel, which is attended by the school’s wealthy white donors:
Here upon this stage the black rite of Horatio Alger was performed to God’s own acting script, with millionaires come down to portray themselves; not merely acting out the myth of their goodness, and wealth and success and power and benevolence and authority in cardboard masks, but themselves, these virtues concretely! Not the wafer and the wine, but the flesh and the blood, vibrant and alive, and vibrant even when stooped, ancient and withered. (And who, in face of this, would not believe? Could even doubt?)
Fearing that he will be expelled after he is admonished by the college president, Dr. Bledsoe, the narrator attends the sermon with a great feeling of anxiety. As he watches the musical performances arranged by the college and observes the behavior of the rich trustees, he begins to feel that he is observing a play in which the millionaires “come down to portray themselves.” Through this theatrical metaphor, the narrator implies that this sermon is an artificial ritual designed to flatter the donors. Additionally, he alludes to Horatio Alger, a popular 19th-century author whose works often featured “rags to riches” stories of young boys and men who work hard and gain prosperity. He also alludes to the Roman Catholic concept of transubstantiation, in which bread and wine is understood to be literally transformed into the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. His allusion to transubstantiation is ironic, as these wealthy donors are by no means capable of performing otherworldly miracles.
