Not afraid of prison
The novel starts quite ironically with the anti-hero, Shadow Moon who spent the last three years in prison. As his release date approaches, Shadow Moon is reluctant to leave the prison because for him, staying in prison was not exclusively a bad experience. He saw his time spent in prison as the lowest point in his life and he became sure that he can’t get any lower than that. Because of this, Shadow sees his time spent in prison as a relief.
Rigged
After Mr. Wednesday pressures Shadow for some time to take a job he offered, Shadow decides to let a coin decide whether he should accept or not the job. Shadow planned initially to use one of the coin tricks he learned in prison to make sure that he wins but Mr. Wednesday saw through him and changed the odds in his favor. The scene is ironical because while Shadow wanted to trick Mr. Wednesday, he was the one who was eventually tricked and played into doing something he didn’t want to do.
Complete control
If at first Shadow was unsure whether he wants or not to work for Mr. Wednesday, after they have a deal, Shadow gives Mr. Wednesday complete control over his life. The things Shadow asks in return are insignificant in comparison with what Mr. Wednesday asks from Shadow. The fact that Shadow agreed with the terms imposed by Mr. Wednesday is ironic considering how adamant he was to have someone else control his life after getting out of prison.
Mad Sweeney
When Shadow meets Sweeney for the first time and learns that he is Irish, Shadow notes how Sweeney is different form the stereotypical way Irish people are portrayed in society. Sweeney notes that a person should not be quick to judge as there is more to a person that meets the eye and one may even be surprised to find that a person is not what someone thought them to be. Ironically, a few hours later, Sweeney proves Shadow that he was wrong for having a stereotype about Irish people because Sweeney gets drunk and picks a fight with Shadow for no real reason. This proves that despite his words, Sweeney is actually just as Shadow expected him to be.
Not what she expected
When Shadow goes to Laura’s funeral, he finds that his wife did not died in some freak accident but while she was in the middle of performing oral sex on the driver of the car. The driver, the husband of Laura’s friend also died in the accident, and Shadow finds that Laura was cheating on him for years. The friend’s name was Aubrey and despite losing her husband and being cheated on, she still attended Laura’s funeral where she brought her friend the flowers she loved the most. After the funeral, Aubrey tries to find comfort and understanding in Shadow but despite her efforts, Shadow remains loyal to his late wife’s memory. Ironically, even though he was cheated on, he never stopped loving Laura and he never blamed her for anything.
