What is ironic about thinking that "it warnt no use me to try to do right?"

Chapter 16

"There warn't nothing to do now but to look out sharp for the town, and not pass it without seeing it. He said he'd be mighty sure to see it, because he'd be a free man the minute he seen it, but if he missed it he'd be in a slave country again and no more show for freedom." -Pp. 91-92

Jim believes he will be free only if they land in Cairo, but in fact, he will still be oppressed by whites. Jim bases his self-worth on the dollar, and it seems that "freedom" is not a state of mind, but rather a state of the Union.