A rhetorical question is asked in order to force the audience or reader to think; one does not expect an answer to a rhetorical question. Should a person exclaim in desperation — "What kind of fool do you think I am?" — this person surely does not expect an answer. In Raisin, Walter Lee asks why his wife should not wear pearls. "Who decides," he explodes, "which women should wear pearls in this world?"
Irony is defined as a "twist of fate," which means that the very last thing we would expect to happen, actually does happen. However, irony is not the same as a surprise ending. For example, a much-decorated wartime hero returns to his peaceful suburban village where a parade is planned in his honor. However, just as he is readying himself to join the reviewing stand of his parade, he slips in the shower on a bar of soap, falls, and is immediately and accidentally killed. The irony lies in the fact that he was not killed during wartime, which might have been expected. Rather, he was killed in a place where one would have least expected it, and the cause of his death has been trivialized as he dies in such a non-heroic manner. In Raisin, it is ironic that Walter believes that graft and corruption dominate all successful business activities — even before he is asked to do so, he prepares himself to pay the graft that he thinks will be requested of him; however, when he gives the money to his "friend" (who runs off with it), it is not the unscrupulous collector of graft who robs Walter of his dream; rather, it is his "friend."
