The Management of Grief

There are two types of irony working in this story: situational and tonal. The first can be defined as the difference between the expected and the actual outcome of an event. One example of situational irony in this story lies in the feud: “We, who stayed out of politics and came halfway around the world to avoid religious and political feuding, have been the first in the New World to die from it” (195-196). Another, less tragic irony is in the fact that Bhave’s Indian parents happen to be non-religious. When visiting a temple with her mother, Bhave must keep her husband's “visitation” a secret. By contrast, she is able to commune more openly with her dead husband and sons in Toronto, a place that has more of a secular reputation than a mystical one.

Tonal irony is when there is a difference between a statement and its meaning. There are many small examples of tonal irony in this story, which serve to show the narrator’s detached yet overwhelmed state of mind. She exists—as she states of herself—"between two worlds" (189) and is therefore alert to absurdities and incongruities that other people around her don’t notice.