Thursday, October 22, 2009
Blog Post Week 8 Jebediah Pritchard
Everyone has a mother and a father, this is biology.
In Catholic Ireland at the time of the story, your parents
had to be married for you to be a legitimate child. If you were
conceived outside of the union of marriage, you are a bastard child.
Which is what Frank learns that he indeed is , a bastard child.
These vital lessons told to him by Mikey. Religious atonement, it seems
is the only way to prevent the soul in such a case from eternal damnation,
for as was posed at the time by the Catholics, a life in Limbo, a now defunct
idea within the hierarchy of Catholicism. The Catholics untimely admitted that they made up Limbo.
Rather like selling indulgences, as Frank can perhaps, through ritualistic purification
save his soul from Limbo and hell. This is a sick and depraved atmosphere for one to live.
An atmosphere of dark clouds of doom and fear, fear that will subside only with
proper adherence to Catholic Rites. It is really an atmosphere of damnation.
How does one stay positive in such an atmosphere?
Response to Ashley Dillon
There were a larger number of posts available in the capital(London) than in Erie. So
moving to England does make sense. I think that the dad does not send money back
because he disassociates , mentally and physically from his family. Frank's family has a
hard lot, this does not mean that Frank's dad has an easy on in England. It is hard to predict
what one would do in such a circumstance, saying that he was bad for doing X, must be viewed,
to a degree, within the context of the situation.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Blog Post Week 7 Jebediah Pritchard
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Week 7 Angela's Ashes Ashley Dillon
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Blog Post Week 6 Jebediah Pritchard
Catholicism plays a central role in the lives of the characters in Angela's Ashes.
In class it has been mentioned several times that the Irish don't or may not have national
pride, and as it was dispelled in class, that was a not good thing , well maybe. Something
that is national and is deeply engrossed in their lives is their religion. Catholicism is central to
all aspects of their lives. The youths attend religious schools, the weekends are managed around
church. The a rite of Catholic passage is mentioned in the reading. That of the ingestion of the blood and body of Christ. To not pass this rite is a horror and to pass is a further step into
the vestments of the body of the Catholic faith. That one, Frank, in our example will become further closer to God, further Catholic.
What if someone was not Catholic, did not believe in its message. Of course many of the people did , just that they say that they did believe, it was not the thing to do to not be Catholic. This is anti intellectualism and generalized backwardness. When the parting of the Catholics and the Protestants occurred, one was to have the ability to be Christian as one wanted, well it is well established that one could only be the type of Christian that your country followed, and not until our times have atheistic moments be met with less horrible results by the followers of the Cross.
Reaction to Ashley B
The Dad is without a generally speaking proper stable job, and it is mentioned that he is not dumb and could maybe seek better vocation. Well maybe. The life events that Malachy finds himself in are hard. He is not weak nor deficient, our environment plays a strong role in our lives. Having many children, having children die, having dis concordance with your wife, having bad jobs, in as much as working rather hard for low pay, these events to not entertain good tidings. Such experiences that the husband faces, as reinforced by the other husbands doing the same, serve to lessen a man a wear away at his spirit. To call the father weak, that is to say that the vast majority would be weak, given the common lot and common problems of the Irish people at the time.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Blog Post #6
-Ashley B
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Chelsey Cresap week 5
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Blog Post Week 5 Jebediah Pritchard
There is a scene where the father wakes the boy up and says we will pay them a nickel for everyone who promises to die for Ireland. This is a distributing scene. Malachy senior then sings a song, about Canada. A land that England had gained through conquest as a colony. Ireland, was wholly part of the Crown at that time, though the troops deployed to fight in the New World , especially in Canada were mostly British, especially English. Malachy is singing and praising a new land, Canada and relating to his own, though it is not Ireland's land ,nor was it ever. Canada was always British and the analogy he uses with Canada for his sons to die for Ireland is wrought in folly. As in so common throughout this book and similar Irish propaganda, is to say they hate England, while seeking after the fruits of English labour.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Blog-Week 5
-Ashley B
Sunday, September 27, 2009
The Dead
After reading the dead, I had a couple of key points that stuck with me. One was the fact that this story incorporated just about every theme from previous stories. It covers the idea of Ireland’s “life span” and how it is turning out in that point and time. It also shows how people are adjusting to Ireland’s downfall. Many just blame other things, or do nothing to improve their situation. At first I thought Gabriel’s speach at the dinner table was finally a character realizing that their lives are valuable and worth working at to better the situation. After seeing his reaction to finding out about his wife’s former “pursuers”, Michael Furey, death and doing some research that it was at that time when Gabriel realizes that there is more then just living and dying. In his speech I think he made it seem like the past will not follow and they can just move on, but he realizes that it does follow you and in order to make a better life you have to change things. I think this was a good way of ending a book about never improving yourself. Finally someone had realized what must be done.
week 4
Jordan Wells - Week 4
In response to Ashley,
I agree that the story "Ivy Day in the Commitee Room" is very confusing. I did not like how Joyce leaves it up to the reader to have backround knowledge on each character in the story. It made this story very difficult to read, as if the reader needs more difficulty reading these stories. I think there was just too many characters for a short story, there were too many characters to fully develope a sence of personallity. After reading this story i had to look up the summary on SparkNotes so i could get a better understanding of what exactly was going on. Even the SparkNotes was difficult to comprehend.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Blog Post Week 4 Jebediah Pritchard
The story that was the most interesting to me this week was The Dead.
Not the whole story though. Most of the story was not to grand.
Though the last pages of The Dead were something very good.
These pages were pages written in the style of Poe and other such dark romantic authors.
James Joyce did not express dark romanticism until the final few pages of The Dead, in Dubliners. Gabriel loved his wife and wanted to be with her. Upon the moment, she tells him of her true love, her lost love. The love that had died early on, the love that had died for her.
To Gabriel this is crushing. Had she ever really loved him , as he had loved her. Or was he lesser a man than the man that departed breath for her. " His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead." This imaginary is haunting and grand.
Response to Ashley B Blog
Is there a theme in each story? Are these stories dark? There is a theme in every story and I believe that there is an overgrandizing of Joyce's themes and end story thoughts by the main character of each story are not epiphanies. The Dead is the only story that is dark to me and only the last few pages.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Blog Post- Week 4
-Ashley B
Monday, September 21, 2009
Jordan Wells Week 3
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Blog 3
Chelsey Cresap blog 3
In the story “Counterparts” Farrington worked as a copy man for Mr. Allyne. Farrington is not fond of his job at all. He is lazy and tends not to finish the work he has been asked to do. In this story Farrington goes decides to go to the bars and drink with his friends instead of copying a certain paper for his boss. I think Joyce was using this to show how Ireland was not motivated to do much back then. While Farrington is at work all he is thinking about it when or how he can get to a pub and he ends up leaving in the middle of the work day to go to the pubs. When he gets home from his “long” day at work he is stressed and maybe a little drunk. He notices that his son left the fire burning and he is not happy. He continues to beat his son and his son repeats “I’ll say a Hail Marry for you.” I think Joyce might have been trying to say that Ireland never takes direct action to fix their problems. They sit a wait for someone else to come along and fix it for them.
In the story “Clay” Maria is a very nice, not so attractive old lady. She volunteers all of her time to helping others. She goes over to her friend Joe’s house for dinner and she bring two cakes. She leaves one on the subway and gets very upset about it. Joe tries to tell her it will be ok but it doesn’t help. She doesn’t really have anything of her own to live for so she lives for others. That’s why she is so upset. At the end of the story Maria sings a song about love. This moves Joe to tears because she has no one to love or to love her. Also, she repeats a verse of the song on accident this symbolizes Ireland repeating themselves for years and years and how they can never break through to better themselves.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Jebediah Pritchard Blog Week 3
There is an interesting interaction at the end of the story. Farrington, angry and upset, goes home
to eat dinner and fines his son Tom there. He, at first is unable to recognize which son it is based upon the voice of the child, he mistakes Tom for Charlie. Farrington wants Charlie to make him dinner, as the mom is out and a scene erupts as the fire has gone out and Farrington views this as a call to beat his child Tom. This is a reversal of the previous situation for Farrington. Mr. Alleyne, Farrington's boss abuses him and now Farrington takes out his angry and physically abuses his son. A role reversal. A sad a pathetic display. Farrington is not too likable and a degenerate. A rather unfortunate state of affairs.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Week 2
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
Chelsey Cresap Blog Week 2
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Response to Leah,
JORDAN WELLS - WEEK TWO
Week 2
Blog Post-Week 2
Ashley Belcik
Blog Post Week 2 Jebediah Pritchard
The two stories covered this week,After the Race and The Gallants do indeed share a common theme. This a first may not be entirely apparent at first. It may be apparent that the stories are about Ireland, though there is another theme that it noted, perhaps a noted theme among many. The connecting strand that was noted by me was of a man as being a worthless , nothing, deprived animal living in a world of false constructs and hellish anxieties and realities . As Edgar Allan Poe has stated in Sonnet, to Science, “...........are dull realities”. A dull , morose reality is introduced in the readings and such concepts an reintroduced and reiterated in many of the others reading in Dubliners.
The two central characters in the reading are to a degree helpless They of course are also not helpless to a degree, the reality of the situation may be like the perception of the situations , though perception is highly subjective and this point , I believe should be considered. I am strongly reminded of the central character in Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground, an unnamed central character who is shy, introverted, timid , unhappy , bitter, morose, morbid, and generally in a sour state. The characters in Dubliners , say Jimmy and Lenehan are both mildly similar to Dostovyevsky's unnamed character, though what is sharply similar is the punishing state of affairs which these three mentioned charters find themselves in and their shared notion of change, though not that change will occur, though that each of these three characters considers change in a stated or unstated, indirect way.
Response to jrimmer 's Post
Are the stories in Dubliners in fact dark bleak tales? To an extent they may be. They are works of fiction that were based upon an author's perception of the situation of his homeland. To me it seems the stories are sweet and sour. There is hope in these stories combined with ill fortunes and a rough lot in life.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
First Week of Blogs
You have all done a nice job of exploring the first four stories in The Dubliners. I sympathize with your feelings that the text is difficult. It is a misleading book. We tend to think of short things as easy things, but Joyce's stories are very thick and hard to work through. It will get easier, however. The stories are all related to one another and the themes will start to stick out for you more and more. I greatly encourage you all to look up any confusing references you see in the stories. It will help you a great deal. Also, pay close attention to any reference you see to the British, alcohol, iron railings, etc. Focusing in on these things will help you build connections between the stories. Remember, Joyce does nothing by accident. Every decision he makes in the text is deliberate. The Dubliners is a book filled with symbols.