Gallows Humor
One particular type of comedic irony is known as gallows humor. It is the facile attempt to make light of a tragic situation involving someone’s death. Levity is, of course, a natural response to tragedy as a defense mechanism against sliding into the abyss. Sometimes, it is not all that horrible, however. Sometimes, it is just an ironically flippant observation:
“This earth is seventy percent water. Hard not to walk into it.”
Gigi’s Mother
Gigi is a beautiful light-skinned black girl just like her mother. She has dreams of going to Hollywood and becoming an actress and her mother supports this dream. But she ironically subverts it with her advice on how to beat racism that she passes along to her daughter. By passing along secrets about how to avoid accidentally darkening her complexion, she is proving herself every bit as racist as those whom she is warning her daughter against.
Sylvia’s Father
Another example of this ironic black-on-black racism is personified in the figure of Sylvia’s father. He is an elitist who refuses to believe that white-on-black racism can be enough to keep anyone back or hold anyone down. His hard work and willingness to play the “game” has result in success to which he seems unwilling to apply any aspect of pure, unadulterated good look. This perception has created a man who looks down upon black poverty with all the sincerity of white racists who do so, but without a lick of recognition of the irony involved.
Ironic Foreshadowing
An example of foreshadowing steeped in irony is applied to the eventually tragic fate of Gigi. Before Gigi’s date with destiny the narrator uses a colloquial bit of imagery intended at that moment to describe only the breaking up her gang of best friends. The full ironic dimension of this phrase will not become clear for a more chapters yet:
“Gigi was the first to fly.”
Expectations
Any single moment in time when one face the unknown, there is always room for irony. Unfortunately, it is usually the case that irony is subverted when the worst expectations come to pass. But sometimes, especially in literature, irony is created from the moments when we are forced to realize that we usually do expect the worst to happen and are most shocked not when it comes, but when we get a glimpse of the possibility of the best that could happen:
“The man looked at me, his eyes moving slowly over my bare legs. You’re a black queen, he said. Your body is a temple. It should be covered.”
