The irony of time
Time doesn't feel real to Mercia sometimes. After 25 years, she is left by her husband, making her feel that she is back to square one. That is ironic, because it means that time is like a cycle, not a line. But, it is like a line in other ways, because her father is 25 years closer to the grave, as they all are. She considers the true dilemma of time, which is human death.
The irony of family portraits
The people in her South African community seem pretty convinced in their understanding of family, role, and family values, but because Mercia has 25 years of radically different experience, she notices immediately where they are behind the times. Ironically, she doesn't have anything to show for her 25 year departure from the family, and because she doesn't have children, she is held as an ironic outlier.
The irony of loneliness
There is simply no consoling Mercia's loneliness. She pays specific attention to her mind, allowing herself to be comforted by her own resolve, but otherwise, who can understand her fully? She has two seemingly exclusive points of view that are both represented in her identity, but in a way that prevents her from feeling that she really fits in. The dilemma also touches on individualism versus tribalism.
The irony of patriarchy
Although the patriarchal elements in Mercia's experience are notable, she loves her father, and instead of resorting to an angry feminism, she analyzes her father's mental health and personality using patriarchy as a variable in her imagination. She realizes that he is the first victim of the strain of his roles, because the family puts him in charge of fixing problems that are beyond his power to control emotionally.
The irony of reason
One should think that everyone everywhere would share common beliefs about reason, but actually, reason means radically different things to different people. Jake is reasonable in his cultural way, and Mercia is reasonable in the way of European culture, in the academic, technical sense of the word. She struggles to decipher what this variable means for her perception of self.
