Question

In “Everyday Use,” which quote is an example of irony?

Answer 1

The answer is “What happened to ‘Dee’? “I wanted to know. “She’s dead,” Wangero said. “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.”

Answer 2

The correct answer is A. “What happened to ‘Dee’? “I wanted to know. “She’s dead,” Wangero said. “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.”

Explanation:

The word irony is a literary device that consists on meaning something but saying it using language that means the opposite or the existence of incongruency or contractions between the expectations in some situation and the way the situations ends or evolves. This means irony is used to show different types of contractions in mainly a humorous way to emphasize these contradictions or incongruences.

On the other hand, "Everyday Use" is a short story written by the American author Alice Walker that tells the story of an Afro-American woman and her two daughters (Dee or Wangero and Maggie), in this story, the author explores the meaning of heritage, culture, and family as the two daughters have different ideas on the way heritage should be preserved. From the quotes given from "Everyday Use," the one that is an example of irony is “What happened to ‘Dee’? “I wanted to know. “She’s dead,” Wangero said. “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.”

This can be explained as in this quote the mother and narrator ask Dee why she decided to change her name to Wangero (an African origin name)  and she explains "Dee" is a name from white people that oppressed her ancestors "I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me", but the reality and what her mother explains to her is that was  named after her aunt Dee and not after any white people. This shows the attempt of Dee to preserved her heritage by changing her name to one with African origin is actually against this idea as she is acknowledging her family and the reason why she was named "Dee" therefore there is an incongruence between the idea of Dee to support her culture and her actions that go against this idea which creates and irony situation. Thus, the quote that is an example of irony is option A.