Memories of a Geisha
The narrator is grounded because her parents think she is doing more than just chatting with a boy. Her anger and frustration at this harshly protective circumstance leads her to feel as though she is a “geisha behind glass.” This is a rather ironic way of seeing herself since the entire purpose of a geisha is actually to do the thing she feels unfairly accused of having done: submissively servicing the needs of a male.
How to be a Lady
Irony is pervasive in this work that it becomes one of those texts where it is sometimes difficult to identify. The reader may have to catch themselves short for just a few seconds to determine if the narrator is being sincere or ironic because often the irony is presented with such sincerity:
“A lady was the most abhorred thing you could become, because ladies were lazy bums who sat around wasting their husband’s money and walked down the street with perfectly made-up mien visiting the jewelry stores to which my mother delivered her wares. My mother was certainly not a lady.”
The Mao Suit
The Chairman Mao suit is primarily a thing of embarrassment for the narrator, but at one point it becomes profoundly ironic, though this point is likely missed by many in the story. Elementary school study of Australian History requires dressing up in colonial clothing for a parade. Lacking anything actually suitable, the Mao Suit comes out of the closet again. Since Mao’s communist revolution was a rejection of everything about colonialism, the irony runs deep.
Good-O is Bad-O
Newly arrived to Australia, a first trip to a grocery store reveals an amazingly inexpensive can of solid in beautiful packaging of the sort never known back home. When cooked into stir-fry, the meat smells as delicious as it looks and the price can’t be beat. Only later when a commercial for the product airs does the irony become clear: they have purchased dog food. And adding an extra dimension to the irony is the reaction:
“Who would believe they feed this good meat to dogs? How lucky to be a dog in this country.”
Patriarchal Discrimination
The narrator’s grandfather expresses a profoundly deep sense of patriarchal discrimination. This leads to a double layer of irony both in what he expresses and the fact that seems genuinely unaware of that layer of irony. A new daughter is nicknamed Little Brother because she exhibits strength and balance instead of the usual flailing that gives toddlers their name. The grandfather is disgusted that already “built like a boy” things are made worse by giving her a boyish nickname with the irony being that the exact same features in a boy would be worth celebrating to him.
