Is He Serious? And Other Ironies Chapter Twenty-Six

Key Points

● Irony trumps everything else● Signs signify messages- but it does not have to be taken in the

normally planned way- in fact it can also be expected to mean the exact opposite of the usual

● Ironic Mode characters who have a lower level of autonomy, self determination, and free willAutonomyAutonomy is a concept found in moral, political, and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision.

Quote One“But what if the road doesn’t lead anywhere, or, rather, if the traveler chooses not to take the road. We know that roads (and oceans and rivers and paths) exist in literature only so that someone can travel.”

“In some places writing something like that will get you a fifteen-yard penalty for improper use of a symbol. Of course, we catch on pretty fast and soon understand that the road exists for Didi and Gogo to take, and that their inability to do so indicates a colossal failure to engage life. Without our ingrained expectations about roads, however, none of this works: our hapless duo become nothing more than two guys stranded in desolate country. But they’re not merely in desolate country but in desolate country beside an avenue of escape they fail to take. And that makes all the difference.”

Quote Two

“What is a sign? It’s something that signifies a message. The thing that’s doing the signifying, call it the signifier, that’s stable. The message, on the other hand, the thing being signified (and we’ll call that the signified), that’s up for grabs. The signifier, in other words, while being fairly stable itself, doesn’t have to be used in the planned way. Its meaning can be deflected from the expected meaning.”

Readers must expect things to be unexpected or they will never really understand all that is trying to be said. Each person who reads something can come to a completely different conclusion and thats the magic of it.

Quote Three“Irony – sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, sometimes wry or perplexing – provides additional richness to the literary dish. And it certainly keeps us readers on our toes, inviting us, compelling us, to dig through layers of possible meaning and competing signification. We must remember: irony trumps everything. In other words, every chapter in this book goes out the window when irony comes in the door.”

Don’t believe anything written or told to you because you do not really know what they intend it to mean. You have to look for the answers and meanings deeper because everything can be symbolic, a metaphor or ironic.

“Forget what I told you and listen to what I’m telling you.”~ Mr. Russo

Examples Death in Romeo and JulietWhen he thought she was dead he killed himself to be together if only in death. It turned out she wasn’t dead but seeing him dead she killed herself.

The Symbol of the Kite in the Kite RunnerIt brought the rape of Hassan, and at the very end flying a kite was the way to make his orphaned son finally talk again to Amir.

Hunger Games Panem means bread, and the citizens in the districts are starving. People in the capitol will make themselves puke to eat more. The idea that it is made into a love story instead of teenagers trying to survive.