Cody’ Father’s Apology
Cody illuminates: “Today my father told me I’d been a good son and he’d been a bad father, and he was sorry about that. But he was wrong: I haven’t been a good son.” Cody’s admittance of being a ‘bad son’ gathers that his father’s admission of guilt is ironic. Nonetheless, the irony portrays the father’s categorical penitence; the father intends to take responsibility for the adversative affiliation between Cody and himself notwithstanding Cody’s contribution to the ruinous affiliation.
Sophie’s Father’s Logic
Sophie avows, “My father says my logical side is most like him, and the dreamy side most like my mother, which isn’t entirely fair, I don’t think. My father likes to think of himself as a logical man, but he is the one who pores over pictures of exotic lands and says things like “We should go on a safari!” and “We should zip through the air in a hot-air balloon!” Sophie’s denunciation exhibits the irony of her father’s discernment of his logicalness. If her father were unequivocally logical, he would not have fancied the illusions that the ‘safari’ and ‘hot-air balloon’ personify. Clearly, Sophie’s father is not unqualifiedly rational.
Prison
Sophie expounds “When I told some of my friends that I was going to sail across the ocean, one said, “But it’s nice here, with the river rolling along every single day.”Another said, “But you just got here. We don’t know anything about you. Like where you lived before, and—” I didn’t want to get into all that. I wanted to start from zero. That had been one good thing about moving here. It had been like starting over. Another said, “Why would you want to be a prisoner on a boat anyway?” “Prisoner?” I said. “Prisoner? I’ll be as free as that little jaybird up there floating in the sky!” Although Sophie’s peers construe sailing as tantamount to being restrained on the boat, sailing propagates Sophie’s wings since throughout the seafaring she senses as if she were hovering on the oceans. The ironic quip vis-à-vis imprisonment indicates that not all folks are fanatical about nautical expeditions.
Sophie’s Parents
Cody protests, “Sophie talks about my aunt and uncle as if they are her real parents, even though they are only her adopted parents and she’s only been with them three years.” Manifestly, Sophie’s dialogues gather that her adopted parentages are her biotic parents. Cody’s disapprovals suppose that he is envious of Sophie. According to Cody, Sophie should not be seeing the adopted parents as her genetic parents. The irony in Sophie’s talks regarding her parents surmises that she adulates them unreservedly. The candid love rises above their lack of biotic linkage.
“ I wish I were an Orphan”
Cody states, “Brian says Sophie lives in a dream world, but I think it’s kind of neat that she does that. At least she isn’t sitting around moping about being an orphan. Sometimes I wish I were an orphan, because my father is a big crab and my mother is afraid of him and always hiding in the corner looking pitiful.” Cody’s aspiration to be orphaned is ironic because being bereaved as child is not pleasurable. The ironic bidding gathers that Cody’s connection with his parents is not as complementary as the rapport between Sophie and her adoptive parentages, which kindle Cody’s desire for orphan-hood.
