Single motherhood
Esther is caught in an ironic dilemma when she realizes that her fantasies about a future with William Latch are way wrong. In fact, she will raise their child alone, and although the two eventually reconnect, she raises her child largely alone—in a world where that isn't exactly the cool thing to do. Ironically, her culture mistreats her for her already difficult situation.
The ironic death of the father
Unfortunately, our hero begins her lonely story with the death of her father. One might view this as a kind of dilemma of faith. Having been raised religiously, the death of father signifies the finality of Esther's childhood, the end of the way things could have been. It signifies the introduction of chaos and suffering into Esther's innocent world.
The ironic death of the mother
Still unfortunate, the mother also dies tragically, during childbirth on the same day Esther herself became a mother. This sad twist indicates that Esther is part of a sacred cycle of childhood and motherhood, and now she is the mother, and the mother has moved one. There has been a change of guard.
The ironic Barfield house
The Barfield estate features a lovely house with its own cast, and among them is Esther's crush and baby daddy. Unfortunately, this grand blessing (the life of Jack her son) comes at a price—she must leave the estate to go on a journey. Ironically, she ends that journey at the same house after a similar incident—first it was the death of her father, now it's the death of her husband—both tyrant kings with little integrity.
The ironic gambler
Just as everything looks as if it's going to be alright, Esther is faced with another dilemma: Live this life with the Parsons, or follow Jack's father to give Jack a chance of understanding life a little better. She chooses for Jack, as she always does, and her reward is a few years of marital bliss. It doesn't last long because Jack doesn't have the integrity to keep out of trouble. The last living action he makes is to waste the family's money on a bad bet just before he died.
