The LACK of Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony is the term given to a situation when the reader knows important information that the characters in a story do not. Thus, when a character acts out of ignorance, the reader can foresee the consequences as ironic in a way the character cannot. Normally in a story like this, there would be dramatic irony in the form of the reader knowing more about what Mink is really up to than her mother does, but in this case Mink is unusually honest and lacking guile. She is absolutely forthright about everything going on during conversations with her mother. The reader thus knows exactly everything that the character knows. And so it is the very lack of dramatic irony in the story that is ironic; given the exact same information, the reader is not surprised the invasion is real while Mrs. Morris is. A very strong paper could be written exploring why that might be so.
Chilling Irony
Mink provides an especially chilling moment of irony through her casual, offhand manner of saying something to her mother that is, by any reasonable estimation, the single most blood-curdling line in the entire story.
“Thanks for lunch!” Mink ran out, then stuck her head back in. “Mom, I’ll be sure you won’t be hurt much, really!”
Situational Irony
The entire story is constructed on a situation that is ironic: an imaginative game being played by children turns out to be real. Normally, this would lead to a surprise “twist” ending, but there is no real surprise that things turn out as they do. This make the story an excellent demonstration the different between literary irony and modern interpretations of the concept which focus on the outcome rather than the set-up. In its most traditional sense, irony is established through the set-up of a situation rather than the outcome.
“There were no traitors among men.”
One of the few direct examples of an ironic statement made by the narrator occurs in the pivotal paragraph in which the state of the nation during the time in not-too-distant future in which this story takes place is described. It is a time of universal peace held together—in another case of irony—by everybody having equal access to weapons of mass destruction. Protective rockets hover constantly over the planet as beneath goes about a global society united against a common enemy: themselves. And then narrator drops the ironic boom that such perfect harmony has also created a situation in which even the existence of traitors to this glorious utopia have been eradicated. As it turns out, however, not only is that statement overly optimistic, but external enemies depend upon it being ironically overconfident for their success.
Domestic Weaponry
One of the story’s few occasions of playful irony—dark though it may be—is the choice of weaponry that the kids are urged to pilfer from their parents in the construction of the apparatus necessary for Drill’s invasions. Part of the game of Invasion! involves what one character refers to a “scrap drive.” The irony is that the interstellar invaders seem to require nothing more sophisticated from their kiddie allies than pots, pans, silverware, can openers, wrenches and hammers.
