"A right smart piece to want to sleep with"
Lov’s young wife Pearl, who was only twelve, by the way, didn’t want to sleep with her husband nor let him to kiss or even touch her. That drew the man crazy, because all those things, listed before, were reasons of him marrying Pearl. And now he cant even touch her. Of course, could marry her elder sister Ellie May, but she had a harelip and that disgusted him. But Pearl was young and beautiful “a right smart piece to want to sleep with” as Lov notes. The irony here represents the understatement of the role of woman in marriage and lack of respect to Pearl. Besides, although sleeping with Pearl was the main reason he married her, Lov never actually did it what also makes this quote sound ironic.
Operation “Turnip”
As the Lesters didn’t have food to eat, they were getting it at any price. Sometimes their attempts to get at least something for dinner were humiliating and phantasmagoric. One day the head of the family, Jeeter Lester, stole a sack of turnips from his son in law Lov, but Lov has noticed the robber and wanted to stop him. At the same time Ellie May jumped on him to drive out his attention so her father could run away. Other members of the family also were helping, it was their common case: “Each of the Lesters, without a word having been spoken, was prepared for concerted action without delay. Dude dashed across the yard towards his father; Ada ran down the porch steps, and the old grandmother was only a few feet behind her.” The irony here is used for depiction of the scene to show the realities of the Lesters’ life.
God’s on my side!
Jeeter succeeded in stealing a turnip: he shared it with his family but still he kept most of it for himself. When Dude, his youngest son, noticed it and asked his father to give him more turnip Jeeter appealed to his best friend, his protector on this sinful land – to God. He said that he had done a bad thing today, because theft is a big sin and he shouldn’t had done it. When Dude responded that his father wants to fool him because he talks like that every time he steals something, Jeeter grew mad; he said that God is on his side and “He don’t like to hear people talking about me in that manner”. Anyway, Dude stole some turnips and run away. The irony here describes the limited man who looks for ineffectual excuses for his bad deeds.
The annual operation
Having an operation performed on Ellie May’s lip was one of those things that Jeeter had been waiting for fifteen years to do. It was a kind of family tradition to take Ellie May to see the doctor and then in last minute make up some excuses why they cant do that. “Once it was plow-lines that he could not do without another day, even though he had no mule to use them on; another time it was snuff he had to have, and so he had stopped at the store and spent what little money he had, and they returned home with nothing accomplished.” The irony here lies in Jeeter’s constant hesitations and comic situations caused by it.
