Irony for Some, Not All
The very opening line is pointed and negative stereotype-oriented example of the use of irony. Because it is only an example of irony to some readers—most, almost certainly—but definitely not all. Some readers will see that line and completely miss the irony because, for them, such an assertion could not possibly be anything but a sincere declaration by not just the narrator, but the author himself.
“This may be hard to believe, coming from a black man, but I’ve never stolen anything.”
The Plot
The entire plot is ironic and ironically self-aware. The narrator is aware of the irony because his description of what he plans to do is punctuated with a great flourish of irony:
“…segregation would be the key to bringing Dickens back. The communal feeling of the bus would spread to the school and then permeate the rest of the city. Apartheid united black South Africa, why couldn’t it do the same for Dickens?”
Black Guilt
In an extended passage, the author ruminates on the idea that blacks carry around a sense of being guilty at all times because if something happens that shouldn’t and there are blacks around, that’s who will be suspected first. Ironically, the first time in his life that he doesn’t feel that sense of guilt is when he is literally on trial for his life:
“I understand now that the only time black people don’t feel guilty is when we’ve actually done something wrong, because that relieves us of the cognitive dissonance of being black and innocent, and in a way the prospect of going to jail becomes a relief.”
On Trial for What, Now?
That trial for his life is on charges that perhaps may be the most incendiary of all the novel’s ironies (and there are many more than what is listed here). The narrator, a black man, is on trial for owning a black slave. Of course, the contextuality is far more complex than that simple description, but essentially that is his astoundingly ironic crime.
The Sellout
The narrator is never addressed by his first name. Only his last name is officially known. Otherwise, other characters call him by a variety of nicknames. One of those nicknames is “Sellout” by which is called by a man named Foy Cheshire who considers himself an intellectual superior to the narrator and a much more honest representative of his race. Ultimately, however, it turns out the title character is not the narrator after all, but Foy, who is not everything—maybe anything—he pretends to be.
