Question

They drove back to the house to let the old woman off and pick up the lunch. When they were ready to leave, she stood staring in the window of the car, with her fingers clenched around the glass. Tears began to seep sideways out of her eyes and run along the dirty creases in her face. “I ain’t ever been parted with her for two days before,” she said.
Which best describes the irony in the excerpt?

A. Mrs. Crater has never been separated from her daughter, and now she must let her go for two days.
B. Mrs. Crater’s tears are insincere because she is happy that her daughter is finally leaving her alone.
C. Instead of experiencing the joy of gaining a son-in-law, Mrs. Crater feels the sorrow of losing her daughter.
D. As the two part ways, Lucynell does not feel the same amount of emotional despair as her mother.

Answer 1

The excerpt in this question comes from the story of "The Life You Save May Be Your Own” by Mary Flannery O'Connor.

Mary Flannery O’Connor was an American writer, she wrote two important novels, “Wise Blood” and “The Violent Bear it Away”, and many short stories.

The “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” tells the story of an old woman and her daughter who is deaf and mute and live by themselves in a farm. The old lady wants to marry her daughter and a man who arrived at the farm to help fix problems at the farm seems like the perfect candidate for the daughter. After some time the man, Mr. Shiftlet, accepts to marry Lucynell, but on one occasion he left her sleeping in a road restaurant and leaves forever.

The general idea of the novel is that of a stranger who arrives to the lives of two women and provokes a change in their lives, just as in “Good Country People”.

The sentence that best describes de concept of the irony in the excerpt is:

C. Instead of experiencing the joy of gaining a son-in-law, Mrs. Crater feels the sorrow of losing her daughter.

Answer 2

The Correct Answer is C (Instead of experiencing the joy of gaining a son-in-law, Mrs. Crater feels the sorrow of losing her daughter).