Upside Down Poster (Situational Irony)
Finally finding work, the man takes over for a laborer who is pasting posters to a brick wall. The laborer goes away and leaves the man to work in his place. When the laborer returns, the man has filled the wall with the posters. However, in an instance of situational irony, the laborer informs the man that he has been putting them up incorrectly. Because the man doesn't understand the local language yet, he didn't realize he was pasting the posters upside down.
Spiked Tentacle (Dramatic Irony)
When the food seller and his son befriend the man, they take him to their rowboat and lift the lid off a pot. The black tentacle shape that emerges startles the man, as he mistakes it for the giant tentacle-like shapes that loomed over his neighborhood in the old country. In an instance of dramatic irony, the reader understands why the man has overreacted, while the food seller and his son watch in confused ignorance; to them, the shape is clearly the tail of a pet.
Shovel (Situational Irony)
When the woman on the floating ship-bus talks to the man, she relates to his immigration status by sharing that she too is an immigrant. She explains that she escaped slavery when she was a girl by fleeing the factory-like open-air prison where she labored. In an instance of situational irony, the girl takes the shovel she uses to move coal into the furnace and uses it to pry open the locked door to her pen. In this way, the tool associated with her oppression becomes the key to her freedom.
A Pest Becomes the Family Pet (Situational Irony)
When the man moves into his rented room, he discovers a tadpole-dog creature hiding in a lidded crockpot. The creature scurries away in terror, prompting the man to chase it with a fire poker. However, the man seems to take pity on the dumb creature once he has it cornered. Rather than kill it, he shoos it off the bed, accepting its presence. In an instance of situational irony, the would-be pest continues to endear himself to the man, becoming a beloved family pet by the end of the book.
