The irony of slavery
This novel observes many of the critical flaws of slavery and of the mentality of those who supported it. Ironically, though, those observations were perfectly obvious back when slavery was being tolerated. Back then, it was still inhumane to treat another human as an animal, but for a long time, America not only tolerated it, but was one of the most horrific instances of slavery in all the West. So, when the book seems ironic, remember that the truth of the matter is the most ironic detail of all—Americans owned black people as slaves for a long time.
The irony of "States Rights"
When teachers tell their students the Civil War was about states rights, perhaps the student notices this irony. The state's right to do what, exactly? To gain economic advantage by using free labor instead of paid labor. To keep humans as animals that one "owns." There is simply no defending a state's rights to dehumanize an entire racial population. In this novel, the Fence is a symbol of this irony. The four slave states are vicious and private.
The ironic evil of GGSI
The novel is predicated on a thought experiment—what if Abraham Lincoln had never swayed public opinion on slavery or freed the slaves in his Emancipation Proclamation? Well, in that case, the irony of time would have made slavery an extraordinarily unwieldy problem, because how can companies compete with GGSI? They don't have to pay for labor, which is one of a business's greatest expenses. Their growth through time is the product of irony—the injustice of their action gives them an unfair edge in the market. The company is an empire built on the backs of slaves.
The irony of espionage
There is a lot of irony in the various plot twists, like that Victor is made to be a spy for the North against his will—which is actually not that different from slavery, one might note. Then, there are various other double agents throughout Victor's journey, including Officer Cook. Father Barton ends up being a good guy, but Victor must choose how to relate to him, and in the end, Victor and Martha infiltrate GGSI using the spy skills they have learned.
The irony of law and business
When the law imposes boundaries on GGSI, they instantly find the loophole. By sending their goods to a shell corporation in Malaysia, they can bypass their own laws and export from Malaysia according to Malaysian law which doesn't really care if the goods were made by American slaves. GGSI also finds that slave labor could be combined with genetic engineer to make a species of slave-clones. That's scary stuff, but it's another way that the company usurps the law, because it is futuristic, and therefore, the law (in the novel) is not fit to treat the situation properly. The law is always one step behind the business, which means the business is relatively free to do what they want, which contradicts the nature of law.
