In the novel “What is the What” Dave Eggers uses the theme of irony. The story starts out with an African-American man that is somewhat new the country, and here’s a knock at his door and answers, there is a woman. She ask to use his phone and he lets her, when he lets her into his home she runs to his bedroom and locks herself in. before he can go to her there is a man behind him telling him to stay. One example of irony in this novel is when the main character is trying to get by the man and he calls him “brother” because they are the same race: “You’re from Africa, right?”, “I nod.”, “All right then. That means we’re brothers.” Another use of irony is when the strange man tries to tell him a lesson about how you shouldn’t open the door to strangers: “I’ll teach you a lesson. Don’t you know you shouldn’t open your door to strangers?” Irony is in real life a lot and in many novels. I think people should care about irony because it helps make things more logical and makes you think more.
