The Humor in the Irony and the Irony in Life - Essay Example

As the story unfolds, each new event hits the reader with an unexpected scenario. Larry lives up to his task and gets Mick out of the pub, sober and early, though not in any way the reader can imagine. O'Connor's tenacity in weaving reality into a humorous irony leads to an unexpected ending to their adventure.

One of the most remarkable aspects of O'Connor is that he uses everyday situations and language to paint his humor. When they are burying Mr. Dooley you could feel the simple self-gratification of Mick's attendance when he experiences, "a pleasant awareness that however much he would miss poor Mr. Dooley in the long summer evenings, it was he and not poor Mr. Dooley who would do the missing". Mick was glad to be alive and looking forward to the pub. He whispers to his friend Crowley, "We'll be making tracks before they break up".

Bolting toward the pub before the last prayer falls silent he worries "in a crowd like that a man might be kept waiting". Once safely on a barstool he orders some lager beer and turns to chat with his friend Crowley. As his back is turned, young Larry decides to taste Mick's beer. Once again, O'Connor turns the mundane into a comedy with the use of plain language and a lack of props. After tasting the bitter brew Larry recalls, "I was astonished that he could even drink such stuff. It looked as if he had never tried lemonade".

Larry continues to sip Mick's glass of beer until it's gone. After Mick offends several patrons by accusing them of drinking his lager, he notices young Larry is drunk. Larry gets sick and the publican requests that Mick and the boy leave the premises. On the way home, Larry is confronted by the jeering old women along the road. Larry's belligerence is humorous for such a young child. "I'll make ye laugh at the other side of your faces if ye don't let me pass". O'Connor had put Larry in his father's footsteps and observed the world through his father's eyes.

Larry continued to taunt the gathering crowds. Poor Mick, now the caretaker of the drunk was embarrassed, "Twill be all over the road," whimpered Father. "Never again, never again, not if I lived to be a thousand!". O'Connor had traded Mick's lager beer for the bitter taste of irony. Mick's swearing off could not redeem him in the eyes of his furious wife. "God forgives you, wasting our hard-earned few ha'pence on drink, and bringing up your child to be a drunken corner boy like yourself." Mick fell back into a pool of self-pity and lamented that he didn't get to drink and was still "a show for the whole road".

O'Connor pulls the irony full circle as the mother's tender love for her son is revealed when she tells him, "My brave little man! It was God who did it you were there. You were his guardian angel.". Larry is rewarded with a day home from school as Mick begrudgingly returns to work.