Chaperone (Situational Irony)
When Sal describes how she was convinced to go on the trip to Lewiston with Gram and Gramps, among her reasons, she states, "Dad did not trust Gram and Gramps to behave themselves along the way unless they had me with them" (5). The irony here is that John Hiddle relies on his thirteen-year-old daughter to be a chaperone for the two adults that would be accompanying her on the trip. Of course, normally the expectation would be that the adults chaperone the children.
Tom Fleet (Situational Irony)
When the Hiddles stop for a swim in a lake on the road, a young man approaches them while they're swimming. He's holding a long bowie knife and tells them that they're swimming on private property. He takes Gramps wallet out of his pants on the bank and rifles through its contents. While this confrontation takes place, Gram is bitten by a water moccasin. Gramps immediately carries Gram to shore and says to the boy, "I'm sure glad you have that knife" (95), because with the knife, he's able to make an incision to drain the venom. The irony is that the knife that is initially intended to threaten the Hiddles ends up being used to save one of their lives.
Mrs. Cadaver and the Journal Entry (Dramatic Irony)
While reading his students' journals aloud (much to their horror), Mr. Birkway encounters an entry about his own twin sister, Margaret. Sal knows that Mr. Birkway and Margaret are siblings, and she knows that as he's reading Phoebe's journal, the discomfort he's feeling stems from the fact that the accusations Phoebe is leveling against Margaret are personally hurtful to him. Despite trying to tell Phoebe that Mr. Birkway and Margaret are siblings several times, she still hasn't been able to tell her because Phoebe keeps cutting her off. As Birkway reads the journal, the readers (and Sal) are privy to his relationship with Margaret while Phoebe and the rest of the class are not, making the tension a result of dramatic irony.
Sal Drives to Coeur d'Alene (Situational Irony)
Throughout the novel, Sal emphasizes her fear of driving, interstates, narrow roads, and car accidents, so it is ironic that she ends up having to complete the last leg of the road trip on her own, against all odds (and against the law) as Gram lays in a hospital bed in Coeur d'Alene. In fact, Sal has to drive on the same exact road where her mother's accident took place, thus driving on the road that originated her phobia of cars and driving.
