The Clown Painting
It is a situational irony when the narrator claims that she remembered the hideous clown painting in a hotel room yet it was unimportant to her. She forgot more important details about the trip to The Yakima Valley but she remembered the painting yet it held no significance to her.
The Crab Nebula
The narrator said that the Crab Nebula in the Constellation Taurus had been exploding since 1054. It is ironical that even though The Crab Nebula has been exploding for almost a thousand years, there is no significant change in its size. The readers would expect that The Crab Nebula to either have shrunk or expanded because of the explosion.
The Narrator’s Faith
It is ironical that the narrator attends mass every Sunday even though she finds mass very boring and found the faith pretentious. The narrator disliked the singing of the church choir and laughed at the prayer intentions of the congregation.
The Polar Expeditions
The narrator tells tales of men who went to explore poles. It is ironical that even though members of a particular expedition died during the expedition because of the extreme weather conditions in the poles, more expeditions were carried out without the proper gear to survive these conditions.
The Firing of a Priest
It is a situational irony that parishioners of a small Catholic Church fired their priest because he insisted that they forgive each other and asked them to ‘pass the peace’ by shaking hands in church. It is expected that parishioners should know that the role of a priest is to encourage peace amongst his congregation.
