Bounce's irony
Ms. Dawlish, or Bounce, is Oliver's childhood piano teacher. She is a robust strict woman with a mean look on her face. Henry, Stillbourne's mogul at the present time, gave her driving lessons when Oliver was a child taking violin lessons. During that time Bounce started to change, become more womanly and happier. Ironically, it is Henry who will bring her much more misery and sadness when his wife and child come into town and even start living together at Bounce's house. Bounce's irony lies in the fact that in the period of her life when she was brought to madness and dubbed as one more insane case of Stillbourne is the period when Oliver saw her as being the happiest and carefree.
Irony of the end
After visiting Bounce's grave at the end and rethinking her miserable life and horrible choices that she made, Oliver is walking down the street and thinking about the shoes that walked that pavement before him. He thinks about the many horrible choices that the owners of those shoes made and will make and suggests that he will pay the price for people to be able to choose their own future. Nonetheless, he concludes in a humorous and ironic way that even he would only pay a reasonable price.
