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Robleski 1 Scott Robleski Professor Pycior Eggers Essay November 4, 2014 This paper addresses whether the book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is ironic or not. I believe it is not ironic. Instead I believe it to be a sarcastic, self-depreciating autobiography. I will first define irony and then use evidence from the book itself, the author’s own comments, and a look at historical and current novels that display examples of true irony in their plots to support my thesis and argument. One definition of irony is that it is a literary technique in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. It may also be a situation that ends up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated. Simply put, it is a difference between the appearance and the reality of a situation or thing. Another way to look at literary pieces that claim to be ironic is to examine how the plot of the work is structured. The use of irony as a literary device can be divided into situational and / or cosmic irony. Situational irony is when the plot of a novel or story in which events turn out contrary to the character’s expectations and desires. For example, I save a cat from a tree in the morning (sparing its life), but then I inadvertently run it over with my car in the afternoon, killing it. My later action (the car accident) negates my earlier efforts to save the life of the cat. Cosmic irony is when irony is associated with the notion of fate, or a deity, manipulating events so as to defeat the intentions of a character, usually the hero of the literary work. Many classical Greek plays are based upon the theory of cosmic irony and Deus ex machina (Sophocles, 2002). A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is not ironic. What some people mistake as Eggers being ironic is really him just displaying and showing himself as he truly was at the time Robleski 2 of the events. Eggers is simply a character that we have seen many times before. He is the classic smart-alecky, overly cool, self-depreciating, sassy, arrogant jerk that is present in much of current writing, TV, and movies (Harris, 2000). His intent is to amuse and entertain the reader with his hipness, not to generate sadness or empathy for the situation he places himself and Toph in. I can relate to this archetype as in high school I was not in the “In Club”. Eggers reminds me of those who were, and how they always seem to think that they were smarter, their jokes funnier, and their lives more interesting than anyone outside of the “In Club”. The starting premise of the story, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is that Dave Eggers parents both die within a few months of each other. He then is forced to raise his younger brother Toph. Dave then proceeds over the course of the book to detail his and Toph's life and their subsequent adventures as well as Dave’s business escapades. Throughout the book Dave is portrayed as not a nice person. In general he is depicted as a jerk; this is where people sometimes draw the conclusion that the book is ironic. However that is not the case. Since Eggers depicting himself just as he was at the time of the book is the key to understanding that his story is not ironic, but rather he is simply “reporting” how he actually acted and lived. A couple of quotes from the book help to illustrate my argument that this is not an ironic work of literature. On page 154, Eggers states that “All we really want is for no one to have a boring life, to be impressive, so we can be impressed.” He then goes on to exaggerate the specialness of his life and how he seeks to punish his parents for dying by engaging in all sort of behaviors that most parents would refrain from, or at least hide from their kids (in this case Toph). What would be ionic would be if Eggers having made the above statement lived out a boring suburban life to protect Toph from his womanizing and other abuses, but then Toph grew up to be the just like Eggers romanticizes himself in the book. Robleski 3 In a second quote, on page 190, Eggers says “If you don't want anyone to know about your existence, you might as well kill yourself. You're taking up space, air.” This declaration offers the prospects of irony. Imagine for a moment if Eggers got all of his fame, everyone knew his name, but he could not deal with the adulation and attention. He then kills himself. The irony would be that on either path he could chose, being a nobody or someone famous, both would lead to the same end; suicide. This would be classic cosmic irony. A final quote underscores how Eggers is really just smarmy and a jerk. On page 188 Eggers writes “You have what I can afford to give. You are a panhandler, begging for anything, and I am the man walking briskly by, tossing a quarter or so into your paper cup.” The irony would be is that for all of his striving and achievements, Eggers eventually ends up on the street. Indeed, in the entire book we are only shown Eggers the achiever and striver. His belief that by striving he is somebody, not like the lazy beggar, would be thrust back into his face and his reality. The irony in this situation would be enhanced as Eggers would now see the world through the eyes of an unfortunate that he has previously scorned. Perhaps then he would not be as condescending and smug about giving just a quarter to a street person. My last argument as to why A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is not ironic is provided by the author himself. In an article published in The Guardian Newspaper, Eggers himself stated “…that there is almost no irony, whatsoever, within its [A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius] covers” (Eggers, 2001). Now, often authors dissemble or cannot see that what they are writing does in fact have a deeper meaning that they are oblivious to, but the reader and critics are not. However, I doubt very much that is the case with Eggers. I base this on the fact that much of his life has been built on fabrication and stretching the truth. At Might Magazine, Eggers published a fake obituary for Adam Rich. He seemed especially proud of the Robleski 4 satire and firestorm that resulted (Eggers, 2014). In this same manner, I believe that Eggers intended A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius to be a similar spoof of his life, and certainly not intentionally ironic. Many literary works such as A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius evoke a sarcastic, seen it all / world weary tone that many people interpret as irony, but is really selfdepreciation or self-criticism. Sarcasm is not necessarily irony, but it can be. Sarcasm is the use of language that subverts the speaker's true meaning in order to be scathing or attacking. Specifically, sarcasm is intended to wound another (IsItIronic, 2014). The use of irony in a literary work is often called dramatic irony. Dramatic irony occurs when the reader has more information on what is really taking place or what may develop in the story before the character or the characters become aware of the same facts. It can be described as secret foreshadowing. The reader may know that the literary character is depending on untrustworthy people, even his enemies, or that he is taking steps towards a wrong solution. Yet the character is not aware of these facts. This is not the case in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Here the reader has less knowledge than the author. In fact the reader is dependent upon the author providing aides or incongruous ramblings to provide the reader with the motivations and reasons for his actions. Eggers is not necessarily telling us about why others act, just why he acts. He is more in on the “secret” than are we the reader. Historically, dramatic irony can be said to have started with the early Greek plays. Perhaps the best known cosmic irony ancient Greek play is Oedipus Rex. A brief summary of the plot is that that Oedipus' parents, the king and queen of Thebes, are warned that their son will kill his father and marry his mother, so they abandon Oedipus in the woods. He does not die, but is instead saved by strangers. Eventually Oedipus returns to Thebes a stranger and finds the town Robleski 5 under the curse of the Sphinx, who will not free the city unless her riddle is answered. Oedipus solves the riddle. He murders the king, becomes the new king and marries the queen to secure his hold on the Theban throne. In time, Oedipus comes to learn that he is actually the dead king’s son, cast out of Thebes as a baby. He realizes that he has killed his father and married his mother, in a direct fulfilment of the prophecy. Horrified, he blinds himself and leaves Thebes forever (Sophocles, 2002). Shakespeare is also a master of using irony to further plot development and create a compelling story for his audiences. For example in Othello, the audience is made aware early on in the play of Iago’s duplicity and desire for revenge upon Othello, but Othello is clueless. In The Tempest, Miranda does not know that Fernando, the Prince of Naples is on the capsized boat. Nor is she aware that Gonzalo, the person who aided Prospero and Miranda’s in their escape into exile is also on the ship. Yet Prospero and the audience do (Cagil, 2014). Moving forward in literary history, many novels in the Romantic Era (e.g., the works of Jane Austin) rely on irony and late revealed secrets as the basis of their plotlines. A challenge with more current literature is that many authors, and readers, confuse irony and sarcasm. Many of today’s authors come from the Post-Modernism School. Traditional literature is works that come out of Western traditions before the First World War. Modernism is what followed the shock of the First World War; literacy works that questioned the structures and assumptions of traditional society. A classic novel here is All Quiet on the Western Front. Modernism literature is usually characterized by an extensive use of irony. Post-Modernism is the most recent literary school and came about after the Second World War. Post-Modernism represents an extension of the philosophies and techniques of Modernism to question the idea of “meaning” in general. Post-Modernism at its core denies the existence of any ultimate principles or truth. Unlike Robleski 6 physical science where the earth is round for everyone, Post-Modernism argues that there is no scientific, philosophical, or religious truth which will explain everything for everybody (PBS, 2014). In literature, the Post-Modernism movement seized upon irony and sarcasm as literary devices to expose and condemn the Victorian hypocrisy of pretending to “not know things” while publicly promoting the opposite. An historical real-life example here is the way in which the British public knew of the extramarital indiscretions of Prince Albert (Dannielle218, 2012), but refused to discuss or accept it. Instead the perfectness of the British Royal family was always emphasized. Of course, today these indiscretions would be on the cover of People Magazine and no one, least of those that are the focus of the article, would be troubled by it. Animal Farm, a book I read in high school, exemplifies the use of irony in the PostModernism world. The difference of what the animals are aware of and what the readers recognize is a key element of the plot. For example, the reader knows that the pigs have used the money from the sale of Boxer to the horse slaughterer to buy whiskey instead of using to help the other animals. Also, the reader is aware of the real world politics that Animal Farm is satirizing and thus “knows” more than the rest of the farm animals. The last few pages of the book are revealing. Here the leaders (e.g., the pigs) of the rebellion against the farmer turn into the farmer themselves and seek to oppress the other animals. This is a great use of irony by an author (Cagil, 2014). A more recently published set of books that illustrates irony that I have read is the Harry Potter series. How is Harry Potter ironic? In the first book in the series (Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone) when Voldemort hears about a prophecy in which he will be defeated, he decides he needs to intervene and stop the prophecy from being fulfilled. In the process of trying Robleski 7 to stop the prophecy from coming to fruition he inadvertently puts the prophecy into effect by trying to kill Harry; by trying to kill Harry he created the bond with the infant that in the end helps lead to his (Voldemort’s) death. If he had never tried to kill Harry then there would have been no fulfillment of the prophecy (Rowlings, 1998). A second example is provided by the last book in the series (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). In it the book reveals in a conversation between Dumbledore and Snape that Harry has only been kept alive in order to die at the right moment (Rowlings, 2007). The Lord of the Rings is a trilogy (plus two prequels in The Silmarillion and The Hobbit) which describes a classic battle of good versus evil. It could be considered a Modernist or PostModernist work as the plotting, writing, and rewriting of the books spanned World War One, World War Two, and the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s. One example of irony in Lord of the Rings is the story of Denethor. Denethor, trying to commit suicide over the collapse of his family line due to decisions he has made, vows that the line of the Stewards will end with him. However, his youngest son Faramir is saved by Pippin and Gandalf from the funeral pyre and ends up in the Gondorian hospital. There he meets Eowyn of Rohan. They eventually marry and have children. Thus Denethor's actions to end his family tree actually end up in uniting Faramir and Eowyn, thus ensuring that his line would, in fact, continue. Conversely, Sauron’s efforts to regain the Ring, and his own inability to imagine anyone doing anything with it but seeking power, leads to the Ring’s and Sauron’s destruction. “Well, let folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the enemy!” says Gandalf at the Council of Elrond. “….Into his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse it, that having the Ring we may seek to destroy it.” In the story Sauron imagines Aragorn will take the Ring and try to overthrow him and become the new dark lord. Sauron cannot / does not imagine any alternative actions by Robleski 8 the leaders of the West; thus he does not discover Frodo and Sam infiltrating Mordor in order to destroy the One Ring. One could argue that Sauron ends up being a classically Greek doomed, tragic hero, great in power and ambition, but with a blind spot that brings about his ironic ruin. This paper addressed whether the book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is ironic or not. I do not believe that it is an ironic work of literature. Instead I believe it to be a book heavy with sarcasm and filled with snide asides to the reader. In defending my position I have used evidence from the book itself, the author’s own comments and historical and current novels that display true irony in their plots. When compared with these recognized ironic literary works, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius fails the irony test. Robleski 9 Citations Academia. (2001). What is the difference between Dramatic Irony and Structural Irony? http://www.academia.edu/3589940/What_is_the_difference_between_Dramatic_I rony_and_Structural_Irony Cagil, J. (2007). A powerful tool in storytelling - Dramatic Irony. .http://ezinearticles.com/?APowerful-Tool-in-Storytelling---Dramatic-Irony&id=535350 Dannielle218. (2012). Victorian morality or hypocrisy. http://victorianscandal.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/victorian-morality-orhypocrisy/ Eggers, D. (2000). A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story. Simon & Schuster. Eggers, D. (2001). On second thoughts - part two. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/jan/20/extract1 Eggers, D. (2000). Diary of a media hoax: The death of Adam Rich. http://www.alternet.org/story/7572/diary_of_a_media_hoax%3A_the_death_of_a dam_rich Harris, E. (2000). Infinite jest. http://www.thenation.com/article/infinite-jest# IsItIrony. (2014). Sarcasm, definition, meaning of and examples of sarcasm. http://www.isitironic.com/sarcasm.htm Literary Devices. (2014). Irony definition. http://literarydevices.net/irony Orwell, G. (1996). Animal Farm. Signet Classics. PBS. (2014). Postmodernism. http://www.pbs.org/faithandreason/gengloss/postm-body.html Remarque, E. (1987). All Quiet on the Western Front. Ballantine Books. Robleski 10 Rowlings, J. K. (1998). Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Scholastic Press. Rowlings, J. K. (2007) Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows. Arthur A. Levine Books. Sophocles. (2002). The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone. Harvest Book. Tolkien, J. R. R. (2012). The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King. Del Rey.