In a flashback, Dana describes the first time she met Kevin, at which time she was working various low-wage jobs during the day and writing her novel at night. The irony of referring to these jobs as a "slave market" is both verbal and situational. Verbal irony is when words are used to convey the opposite of the literal meaning. Dana and her coworkers refer to their jobs as a "slave market" to express their discontent with the physical nature of the work and the low wages. However, the fact that they are paid for their work supports the opposite fact—this is far from slavery. Even Dana says, "Actually, it was just the opposite of slavery. The people who ran it couldn't have cared less whether or not you showed up to do the work they offered." Situational irony is when there is a disconnect between what a person expects to happen and what actually does happen. The situational irony is that Dana, a free, modern black woman, expects to remain as such. When she is cast back in time and forced to survive real slavery, she witnesses the slave market in its full meaning.
