Character Perception
Generally speaking, novelists tend to shy away from explicitly mentioning the irony of situation when they engage it. An exception to his conventional rules appears in this novel. “LuLing got into fights mainly because of her poor English. She didn't understand others, or they didn't understand her. Ruth used to feel she was the one who suffered because of that. The irony was, her mother was actually proud she had taught herself English, the choppy talk she had acquired in China and Hong Kong.” Irony tends to be more effective when attention is not called to it because one of the powers of the device is the ability to create opposing perceptions simultaneously. The difference in this example is that this is not objective narrative description but the subjective expression of a character’s thoughts. The irony is perceived specifically by the character of Ruth as opposed to being constructed by the narrative voice representing the author.
Unforeseen Unintentional Irony
Commenting on actual pop culture figures who are still enjoying their fame at the time an author composes a novel always carries with it the implicit potential of one day becoming an example of unintentional irony. Such is the case when one of the book’s characters contemplates launching her next book tour. "No, dear, I mean what shows I might be on. Sixty Minutes, Today, Charlie Rose —oh, I would love to be on that show, that man is so sexy." When this novel was published on February 19, 2001, the only irony this passage carried was entirely dependent upon whether one agreed with the expressed opinion or not. Flash forward sixteen years later to the day that multiple women working for Charlie Rose on his TV talk show officially lodged complaints of sexual misconduct against him and it is almost impossible to read the same passage without a sick sense of irony attached.
Controlling Irony
Ruth Youth is a character who has been constructed specifically for the portrayal of her life as one controlled by irony. She is a ghostwriter who specializes in the types of books commonly categorized and displayed in the “Self-Help” section. This decision for a career point arrived at as a disappointment is not by accidental. Ruth is precisely presented as a writer of books designed to facilitate helping other people learn how to help themselves improve their life while she remains incapable of improving the conditions of her own life.
Comic Irony
Irony can often be achieved through naming. Actual character names are the more traditional approach, but a secondary pathway is through the naming of geographical or topographical features. An example is the observation that “If we traveled by road, it was only about ten kilometers from Immortal Heart. If we walked through the End of the World, it was half that distance but a more dangerous way to go, especially in the summertime.” The road leading to this comically ironic description commences much earlier in the narrative with an initial introduction of End of the World in seemingly unambiguous apocalyptic metaphorical terms. Eventually, this location of the apocalypse is revealed to be a genuine location and the name End of the World becomes entirely ironic
Unpleasant Irony
The most unpleasant introduction of irony into the story has to do with the complexities of immaturity, sexuality, misinformation, suspicion, unjustified accusations, and revenge. Ruth learns from Wendy that pregnancy is caused by a man urinating inside a woman and circumstances lead her to believe she has been impregnated by Lance. Formal accusations of rape are about to be made against Lance before this misassumption by Ruth is revealed to be based on misinformation. Ironically, however, not much later Lance actually will attempt to sexually assault Ruth.
