“But he didn’t use a cane and he didn’t wear dark glasses.” (“Cathedral”)
The blind man in “Cathedral” does not utilize a cane and dark glasses. It is ironical, at least for the narrator, for the blind man to find his way around the speaker’s house even though he cannot see. What is more, the blind man travels all the way without anyone to aid him. The irony of the blind man’s set of circumstances affirms that blindness is not a deterrent to leading an ordinary life.
The Irony of Ed’s Love (“What We Talk about When We Talk About Love”)
Terri recalls how “He (Ed) beat me (Terri) up one knight. He dragged me around the living room by my ankles. He Kept saying, ‘I love you, I love you, you bitch.” Ed’s actions are at odds the articulation of love. If he genuinely loved Terri he would not have dragged her, beat her up and disrespected her. The ferocious actions are not one and the same as love; rather, they depict an enraged man that can neither adore nor revere a woman. What is more ironical, Terri concedes Ed’s violence towards her as actions of love. Terri confounds her ex-lover’s toxicity and aggression for love. Accordingly, no amount of violence from her ex-lover would make her comprehend that he did not love her.
The Irony in “Kindling”
In “Kindling” Myers assents to cut Sol’s wood for at no cost. He does not charge anything even though he pays rent to his hosts. Ordinarily, he would have pressed for some compensation after the kindling to help him with the payment of his rent considering that he currently does not have a job. The irony shows that Myers’s services are not money-motivated.
