Sciascia uses the element of irony throughout the short story in order to enhance the theme of hope and deceit… Sciascia evokes the element of irony in the title of the story as well because the story is called the long crossing and the journey that these travelers thought they were going on was in fact not long at all, it was a voyage that led them to the other side of their homeland of Sicily. Irony is used when describing how some of the travelers paid for the expedition by borrowing from money lenders. Some who borrowed from the lenders had no intention of paying the money back because they figured they had suffered enough abuse their whole lives regarding money, and once they figured that once they arrived in America they will owe no one. “The cunning ones among them borrowed from the money-lenders with the secret intention of defrauding them, just this once, …show more content…
Another way Sciascia implements the use of irony is describing Signor Melfa as being a trustworthy man who leads the expedition. The travelers put their money and faith into this man. Once the group arrives in “America” one man questions if they are actually in the United States and the Signor Melfa acts appalled at the question. “They all agreed with him and shot looks full of pity and scorn at their companion for having ventured such a stupid question” (9). This is ironic because the fact of the matter is that they were actually not in America and the man was riht to question the Signor. Once, Signor Melfa sets the group free to get to the station the group comes up upon a roadway where they see Fiat’s driving (a common car in Sicily) and they see a sign written in Italian. They stop a driver and he curses them out in Italian and they ask him where is the train station and he replies that they are in Sicily. “There was, after all, no need to hurry back to the others with the news that they had landed in Sicily” (Sciascia