Hang's visit to Moscow
The novel begins with Hang's receipt of a telegram which informs her of her uncle's illness. Hang, therefore, decides to leave for Moscow to visit her Uncle Chinh. Hang's visit to Moscow is quite ironic considering the fact that she was sickly herself, having been racked with fever. She says that the telegram "felt like a curse."
Que's reprimand for Hang's complain of hunger
Que takes considerable care of her brother's kids in the novel spoiling them with goodies because they are skinny. On the other hand, when her real daughter Hang complains of hunger, her mother reprimands her. Que's reprimand of Hang's hunger complaint is thus ironic since its something that beats logic. Being her mother and considering the way that Que treats her brother's children, one would expect that she would offer Hang food.
Aunt Tam's excessive love for Hang
Aunt Tam's love for Hang is quite ironic considering the fact that she is not her blood daughter. Even so, Aunt Tam is more concerned with Hang's future to an extent that she spends her adult life working and saving to ensure that Hang has a bright and admirable future. In Paradise of the Blind, Huong puts a great emphasis on family and familial ties, a concept of which Aunt Tam epitomizes.
Hang's stooped shoulders
When she bumps into a Russian woman at the train station, Hang takes notice of the other woman's features and vividly contrasts them with her own. In the description of herself, Hang says that her back is hunched, she is worried and pale unlike the Russian woman whose figure was "tightly molded into a red velvet blouse and black skirt." It becomes rather ironic that Hang would have a hunched and stooped shoulders despite being the same age as the woman that she bumps into. The hunched shoulders, however, play the role of conveying to the reader the nature of Hang's difficult life.
Paradise of the Blind
The title of the novel has the word paradise in it which is quite ironic considering the portrayal of the events in the novel. While the title has an allusion to paradise, particularly the ideology that is rampant through the promise of a "worker's utopia" in communist indoctrination, the same ideology does not materialize ringing a bell to the novel's ironic allusion to paradise.
