An author of “novels”
Joanna’s father, Howard Mason, was a writer; he wrote “novels”. The word taken into quotation marks shows irony in itself, assuming that the ordinary meaning of the word ‘novel’ is distorted. Joanna did not remember well the events of her early childhood, but she remembered that “sometimes people got excited and smiled at their father asking him: ‘Are you the Howard Mason?’, or would say “that Howard Mason”. Joanna felt in people’s attitude mocking, but due to her child ignorance could not understand the reason. But the reason was very simple, her father was the author of the books for adults, which hardly could be called novels (as the word carries a connotation of classics), and another reason people did not respect him was that he actually was not a successful writer, simply a loser.
Bad luck
Joanna was the only child who had not inherited anything good from her mother, except for her allergies. Little Joseph had inherited his mother’s “dark hair and pale skin”, Jessica received “green eyes and painter’s hands” of her mother, and Joanna got only her mother’s “allergies”. Gabriella, Joanna’s mother, said that it was Joanna’s bad luck. Ironically it was only Joanna, with her bad luck, who was lucky to survive.
A proud teacher
Reggie had a friend, Ms. MacDonald, who was a teacher of English Literature. The one who is tutoring Literature is supposed to be well-educated and reasonable, but Ms. MacDonald had a claim that she had “read every book that had ever been written”. Such a claim proves that she knows little of Literature, because a person occupied with books would never have such a claim, as it is simply impossible to read all the books ever written. The irony is obvious.
“But she needed flowers”
Louise was very aware of the people around her, as well as of people in the far away areas. Once, when she had to buy flowers, delphiniums, it became clear that these flowers were brought from Kenya where they were grown. At the moment she thought of Kenyan people who “were supplied with little water to drink themselves”. The profit of growing flowers was bigger that giving water to ordinary people. Louise felt sick at that thought, but she still “needed flowers”. The irony is that the world is not fear.
