What is the irony in "The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse"?

In "The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse," the irony lies in the fact that Mourad, a member of the Garoghlanian family, steals a white horse. This is ironic because the family is locally renowned for its honesty. In fact, as Aram tells the reader, honesty is their second best-known family trait and it has been around for centuries, long before the family ever became poor:


"We had been famous for our honesty for something like eleven centuries, even when we had been the wealthiest family."



For Aram, it is unbelievable, then, that a member of his family would demonstrate such outright dishonesty by stealing a horse. But knowing the poverty of his cousin, there can be no other explanation.


Moreover, that Mourad describes his understanding of the horse as "honest" is also ironic because his relationship with the horse is based on theft, which is an act of gross dishonesty. 

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