The Round House Lesson Plan

“Although this was not one of the cases we marked out as important, I remember it well. Here it was. The weighty matters on which my father spent his time in his life” (47).

Explain the sarcasm in this passage as it refers to the Bingo Palace and Casino case. What is the role of sarcasm here and in general throughout the book?

Students should explain the sarcasm with the use of the word “weighty,” as this case is clearly not weighty at all. Writers often use sarcasm in literature to convey either the narrator or a character’s irritation or frustration about something. In this case, pointing out the often lack of weightiness of his father’s cases calls attention to a...