Responding to Question #6: What is the principal irony in the story?"
' "My brave little man!" she said with her eyes shining. "It was God did it you were there. You were his guardian angel." ' (Page 351)
Throughout the beginning of this story, Larry worries about and anticipates the drunken behavior of his father. He describes for the reader what will happen because it always happens that way. His father will have one drink because of the funeral and then get totally plastered. After that, he won't want to go to work because he feels sick and then he'll turn into the biggest drunk ever for a few weeks and spend all of the family's money until he gets his life back in order until the next bender. All of his previous drinking is rooted in shame. Shame of his life, shame of the first drink. He just wants to get rid of his memories of drinking by more drinking. The mother and son do not want the father to get drunk after Mr. Dooley's funeral, so the son accompanies him as a buffer. However, the son takes it upon himself to save his father by drinking until he is exactly like his father.
All of the ironies in this story contribute to the main irony that the father and son's roles are completely reversed. The son ends up acting exactly as he had feared his father would. The father is forced to play the role his wife and son usually play by caring for his drunken child. The mother thanks and praises her son for coming home completely drunk even though, in a normal situation, a mother would be irate that her 12-year-old son got drunk. It was a blessing in disguise for the family's well-being.
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