OTHER ELEMENTS

IRONY

Another important element is irony - when something happens, or is seen, or is heard that we may know, but the characters do not, or that appears opposite of what is expected. Some examples of irony include:

1. It is ironic that the first thing Jeannette's Mom begins to talk about is Picasso. She is homeless and finds food in dumpsters.

2. Jeannette's mother disapproves of her hum chewing and calls it a low-class habit. They are low-class people.

3. It is ironic that Mom tells Jeannette after she's burned, You don't have to worry anymore, baby. You're safe now. The place she's least safe is with her parents.

4. There is also the irony that Dad teaches Jeannette how to stand up against the monsters and not show them fear while he becomes a monster himself by destroying the kittens he no longer wants to care for.

5. Ironically, when the kids nearly fall out of the back of the truck, Jeannette never passes judgment against her parents. In fact, with great maturity, she recognizes that her father's anger is rooted in his fear for them.

6. It's ironic that a family that is always on the move now is living in a railroad depot.

7. Jeannette and Brian mix some discarded chemicals and throw in a match. They are knocked to their feet and the walls of the shack where they have mixed their brew catch on fire. Jeannette yells that they have to get out, but Brian keeps trying to put the fire out. Ironically, Dad happens to be walking home from work at the time and gets them both out.

8. Mom's students who are considered to be problem children or mentally slow begin doing well under Mom's teaching.

9. After fear of arrest sends the family in the run, they end up in Phoenix in comfortable surroundings. Mom says, with irony, So the trouble you kids got into with Billy Deel was actually a blessing in disguise.

10. Jeannette points out that many of the people in their neighborhood are weird. This is ironic, because there is no family more weird than the Walls family.

11. After Mom and the girls are caught shoplifting and have to pay for the item they were going to steal, Mom calls it highway robbery!

12. Mom first observes that things have gone downhill a little since they had last been in Welch, but she grins when she realizes that there probably aren't any other career artists who live there and her career can no doubt take off in Welch.

13. The principal in Welch has an accent that is so thick that Mom has to translate for the kids, and then he can't understand the kids' accent. As a result, he places them in special classes for students with learning disabilities and they had been in the gifted program at their previous school.

14. The girls at school beat Jeannette up for being poor when some of them are even poorer than she is.

15. When Erma molests Brian, Dad is incapable of protecting his children as a result of his past, and it is Lori and Jeannette who come to Brian's defense.

16. Ginnie Sue doesn't look like any of the whores Jeannette knew in Phoenix and California. She looks just like any other Mom.

17. After Jeannette sees he first thermostat, she is so impressed and amazed that for many nights afterwards, she dreams that all they have to do to fill their house with that clean warm heat is to move a little lever.

18. As for Dad after Erma dies, he seems more distraught than Jeannette has ever seen him. This surprises her, because Erma had seemed to have an evil hold over him, and she thinks he should be glad she's gone.

19. Ironically, Jeannette was cool as a cucumber when she stole the watch from Bercker's, and now she is terrified that someone will catch her putting it back.

20. Lori climbs into the car and is gone, never looking back. Dad is standing on the porch, smoking a cigarette. He makes only one comment, This family is falling apart. Ironically, it has been falling apart for years.

21. When Jeannette gets home, Dad is so eager to hear all about the interview with Chuck Yeager that he is even sober.

22. The guidance counselor tells Jeannette, To leave West Virginia, even to leave Welch, will be unthinkably disloyal, like deserting your family. For years, this has been the best thing that could happened to these kids.

23. The political science professor is outraged and asks Jeannette, What do you know about the hardships and obstacles that the underclass faces? She doesn't realize Jeannette has lived in that class all her life.

24. For a while, Jeannette feels very guilty about staying in college while Mom and Dad are on the streets. More than that, she feels incredibly selfish. This ironic because her parents never felt bad about keeping their children homeless and hungry.

25. Dad has become most interested in Mitchell Feigenbaum, who says that in chaos theory, disorder actually conforms to a rational pattern, which implies the existence of a divine creator. Ironically, he says that if this is all true, he may have to re-think his atheistic creed.

26. Dad and Mom are beginning the third year of homelessness, and Jeannette has come to accept that this is the way it is going to be. Mom blames it all on the city. They make it too easy to be homeless. If it was really unbearable, we'd do something different.

27. Jeannette loves a behind-the-scenes column, because she wants to let the world know that no one has a perfect life, and yet she cannot brings herself to tell anyone the truth about her own parents.

28. But despite all the hell raising and destruction and chaos Dad created in their lives, Jeannette cannot imagine what her life will be like . . . without him. As awful as he can be, she has always known he loves her in a way no one else ever has.