Fidelis' Profession and Talents
The word "butcher" conjures up an image involving blood and gore and chopping up dead animals for meat. Fidelis' profession is not one that immediately conjures up pictures of beauty yet his singing voice is beautiful and known throughout the town of Argus. The beauty of his singing and the ugliness of his trade are an ironic combination within the same person.
Roy's Character
Roy is a non-functioning alcoholic and it viewed by the citizens of Argus as a deadbeat dad. The irony of this is that he actually isn't a biological dad at all and stepped up to take in an abandoned child when nobody else would do so. He raised Delphine as his own and did a good job parenting her. The irony is therefore his current situation and the way he is viewed in relation to his actions that saves a little girl from being completely abandoned.
World War One and Fidelis
Fidelis is an active participant in World War One; he is a sniper in the German army. At the end of the war his home town is decimated and everything looks hopeless but the irony of this is that out of this hopelessness comes an entirely new life for Fidelis who immigrated to America and ultimately this forced love provides an amazing life for his family.
Fidelis' Family Splitting Apart
Fidelis' family is not split apart by the war he participated in but by the war he did not. He is not involved in World War Two but because two of his sons fight on the Allies side and two support Adolf Hitler his family is torn apart.
Delphine as a Mother
Delphine has never had the experience of being a daughter because her mother abandoned her, but ironically she is a wonderful mother to Eva's children after their mother passed away. It is also ironic that having been raised by a person she was not related to by blood that Delphine now raised children she is not related to either.
