The irony of births and marriages
Death and birth are part of life, and it is a norm even if some people live in denial. In most circumstances, people celebrate birth but bemoan death. It is agreeable that the ultimate end of any person is death. Satirically, the author writes that in a whole year, no one died, and there was no marriage, implying that there were no births. The author writes, “Nobody died that year. Nobody prospered. There were no births or marriages. Seventeen satires were written-disrupting a cliché and, presumably, creating a genre.”
The irony of the rat
The rat knows traffic, and it obeys. The author explains that when the rat arrives at a traffic point, it waits for the traffic to end before crossing. It is also sarcastic that large hotels and restaurants are not able to control mice. Fain says, “A large rat crossed my path last night on Fifty-seventh Street. It came out from under a wooded fence at a vacant lot near Bendel’s, paused for traffic, and then streaked across the up-town sidewalk, sat awhile in the dark, and vanished.” It is interesting and satirical at the same time that a rat thinks like a human being.
The irony of death
Ironically, the young black politician thinks that he is immortal because he says no one will die. The young politician is inside a cathedral where the priest is presiding a mass for the dead victim. The reader finds it sardonic that the young politician still believes that no one will die again. The young politician says, "The rest are never going to die. You see them staggering out of their limousines. All Irish, all senile, all strokes. The union men. Even their wives have cardiac conditions. But I know it now. They are never going to die.” The young black politician is giving himself false hope.
The Irony of Freedom
Freedom is the source of happiness and self-satisfaction because one chooses to do what brings happiness. However, it is ironic that Fain gets nothing out of the freedom she enjoys while doing her work. The author writes, “Freedom means nothing left; cab change receptacles are hearing aids in which one’s fingers jam-when the clips are coming in quite fast, it’s like waking up and trying to orient the bed.”
Fain’s father morning exercise and sleeping
Fain's father wakes up at 6.00 am, and his exercise includes swimming in the cold water before taking breakfast. Fain says, "When father got up at six for his ride or his swim before breakfast, the children, having gone to bed well after midnight, were sleeping." It is also ironic that Fain's house is full of sleep because out of twenty-four hours a day, they sleep for twenty hours. Fain says, "Twenty hours out of twenty-four, in short, the hush of sleep lay over the house. Nobody thought of waking anybody.”
