Question

Which excerpt from O’Connor’s “Good Country People” contains an example of irony? Joy was her daughter, a blonde girl who had an artificial leg. Mrs. Hopewell thought of her as a child though she was thirty-two years old and highly educated. [W]hen she and the girl happened to be out of the house together, she would say something and add the name Hulga to the end of it, and the big spectacled Joy-Hulga would scowl and redden as if her privacy had been intruded upon. She considered the name her personal affair. Nothing is perfect. This was one of Mrs. Hopewell’s favorite sayings. Another was: that is life! And still another, the most important, was: well, other people have their opinions too. Mrs. Hopewell liked to tell people . . . how she had happened to hire the Freemans in the first place and how they were a godsend to her and how she had had them four years.

Answer 1

The correct answer is C. Nothing is perfect. This was one of Mrs. Hopewell's favorite sayings. Another was: that is life! And still another, the most important, was: well, other people have there opinions too. This is because she was basically saying that you should get over things and let people think what they want. The problem is that Mrs. Hopewell is pretty hypocritical. She actually does feel sorry for her daughter, but says the opposite. This is the epitome of irony.
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Answer 2

A.    Joy was her daughter, a blonde girl who had an artificial leg. Mrs. Hopewell thought of her as a child though she was thirty-two years old and highly educated.

 

Irony is a literary device that is contingent upon two things (at least) that have different, contrasting, or opposite meanings.  That said, when looking for irony within this excerpt, we should be looking for contrasting things.  Immediately, as the excerpt begins, we see this contrast in the image of a child and highly educated adult.  The use of this form of irony often exists for humor in how things turn out to be different from what one might expect; the difference, of course is in how a highly educated 32-year-old woman is still thought of as a child.