Ruby Fisher's irony
When Ruby Fisher manages to read "A Piece of News," the dramatic irony of not being literate enough to read the whole report escalates her nerves. The headline she is able to make out says that someone with her name has been shot in the leg by her husband. This makes her upset, because she cannot tell whether the event has been a mistake in the print, or whether she has read the story wrong, or perhaps whether someone else has her same name, but she can't help but wonder if the print is some sort of dark prophecy foretelling her death.
The woman at the "P.O."
When a young woman details her story in "Why I Live at the P.O." the reader gets to peak into her life and mind. We learn that she is someone who lacks stability because of her family. The in-fighting for their parents attention leaves two sisters constantly frazzled and angry, and when the man they both love runs away with one of the sisters, they also take along a young girl who knows all too much about fighting. The young woman runs away and lives at a very ironic place, the post office, a symbol for her feelings of ambivalence. It's as if she says she belongs to the public, a ward of the society.
The ironic family
A sublime memory is interrupted by a brash family who sets up their tent right next to the young woman in "A Memory." The heat and sun of the beach had sent her into a sleepy state wherein she re-experienced a poignant memory where she was finally able to touch the love of her life, even briefly. The transcendental moment is ruptured by the outlandish family who brings her crashing back into reality. The irony of their timing is a reminder that transcendental bliss is famously hard to maintain for very long.
The irony of "The Hitch-Hikers"
The dramatic irony of "The Hitch-Hikers" is that when this salesman picks up strangers to travel with him on the road, he doesn't know anything about them. They might be violent for all he knows. Then, these two specific men are raising the tension even more by bickering and by being confrontational with each other. When they fight, one kills the other one, and then the story takes an ironic turn. It is not the hitch-hikers who are disturbing; it is the salesman. He likes the company of strangers, but he is a sociopath who doesn't care about human suffering. He isn't phased at all when someone dies in his car. He doesn't even care.
The prophetic irony of Evers' death
When Welty wrote and published, "Where Is the Voice Coming From?" she described the death of Medgar Evers in striking detail, but the irony of that was that she wrote it before he died. The story was purely fictional, but ironically, the real life death of Medgar Evers occurred as she foresaw it. The prophetic death of the Civil Rights leader is a bone-chilling reminder of Eudora Welty's insightful and horrific eye for human nature. She saw the writing on the wall.
