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

The last three stories we read were "A Mother", "Grace", and "The Dead". By the time I got to these stories I understood them more than the other ones. "A Mother" was about a mother who ruined her daughters career. Her daughter was playing in a concert but had not gotten paid. Because of this the daughters mother complains to the to men running the show which causes her daughter to get fired from the show. Therefor, ruining the daughters career for the rest of her life. In "Grace" a drunken man falls down a fight of stairs outside of a pub. The police are called but they do not seem that concerned neither does the mans friend who called the police. Later the man goes to talk to a priest about his sins but the priest does not seem forgiving. The man doesn't see how a whole life could be changed in one night by talking to a priest. "The Dead" was about love. Gabriel finds out that his wife was in love with another man before him. He had died waiting for her outside in the cold. Gabriel realizes that he does not love his wife as much as her first love did because he would not die for his wife. He has an epiphany and is the first one in these stories that realizes he is wasting his life away and needs to change things. If he doesn't make a change soon then his life will pretty much be worthless.

After reading The Dubliners I definitely am more educated about Ireland's history. I cannot say that I particularly enjoyed reading it but I learned a lot. It was interesting to read a different style of writing and it trying to understand it was very frustrating. In response to Jordan I agree. I felt that with almost every story you had to have background information to understand what was going on but we were not provided with that. I had to go to spark notes for every chapter to actually know what was going on and when I did not I felt as if I had no idea what we were talking about in class dicussions.

Jordan Wells - Week 4

After reading the Dubliners it is hard for me to tell if i like or dislike the series of stories. I felt like some of the stories were just not interesting at all. There were a select few that i enjoyed reading because they related to the world today. I liked how every story had some sort of epiphany in the story. I didn't like how the stories all had a negative aspect to them, i quess it's due to the time this book was written and Joyce's writting style. During this weeks reading, i liked reading "A Mother" more so than the other stories. Mrs. Kearney has a very practical view on life and she is used to being handed everything and usually gets what she wants. She ends up marrying her husband because she wanted her daughter, Kathleen, to receive a full payment for her performance. She did not marry him for love, it was more satisfaction for Kathleen. After reading "A Mother" it leaves you questioning about the integrity of Mrs. Kearney.

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.

Blog Post Week 4 Jebediah Pritchard

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.

Blog Post- Week 4

Upon reading “The Dubliners” I have noticed a theme that is similar in each story. The stories all have their own epiphanies in the end, but each story is very dark and dramatic. My personal preference is the complete opposite of Joyce’s choice. If the stories were happy upbringings then I think that Joyce wouldn’t be able to get her point across about Ireland. My favorite story this week was “A Mother”. The mother in this story, Mrs. Kearney, seems to get what she wants most of the time but this time it only increases her own anger. First of all, she marries her husband just to be married, not for love. Then Mrs. Kearney goes about by taking her daughter, Kathleen, out of the concert she was to perform in, annoying everyone in the audience. Also, her mother had ruined Kathleen’s musical career. As I read this story I started to question myself about Mrs. Kearney’s circumstances. I also read, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”. Ivy Day represents nationalist politician, Charles Stewart Parnell, who is remembered on this day. As I read this story I found myself very confused for most of the story. The reason for my confusion was because there were so many different characters. Joyce talked about these characters like we should have known who they were. Just like the rest of the short stories in “The Dubliners” this story represents problems that are occurring in Ireland.

-Ashley B

Jordan Wells Week 3

In the story "Counterparts" we meet Farrington who works as a copy man. To go along with Joyce's theme of the book, Farrington hated his job. Farrington is always thinking about drinking. He is a heavy alcoholic and is always thinking about his next drink. He leaves his job early so he can go to the pubs to drink. He uses the excuse that he is stressed out at work to help feed his alcohol addiction. Farrington does put up with abuse at his job. His boss abuses him, can't say he doesn't deserve it. This abuse leads him to taking out his stress and anger on his son. Of course, the drinking does not help his anger. There are many various themes and morals in this story. It is apparent that Ireland does have a major drinking problem. After reading the other stories is is also apparents that Ireland may have many other problems, and htey expect others to fix their problems. I liked this story more so than the other stories in this book. I feel like this story has stressed a major issue in our world today.

Blog 3

In this week's reading, I found more and more reoccurring themes. In the short story, "Counterparts", Farrington constantly dreams of drinking while at work. He fantasizes about drinking at the bars with his friends. His job is to make hand-made copies of important documents, which I think was a clever symbol Joyce decided to add. His job is based on duplication; everything is routine. That was how Ireland ran during that time. Farrington has a revelation, as do many other characters in The Dubliners, that his life is run by tradition. The watch that he gave away also made a lot of sense because he pawned it off for drinks. Time was thus released. Farrington's whole life is one big routine schedule. I definitely found this story to be the most dark and tragic of the stories we have read so far. There was a lot of anger, and it seemed pretty explicit.

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.

Jebediah Pritchard Blog Week 3

The story Counterparts was interesting to me. Farrington was a man who worked as a copied and hated his job. In the day on his life that we get a view of, he has gown out 5 times to get a drink. Which seems to be a lot. He rather hates his job and his boss. His boss being a physically small man who abuses him and Farrington being a rather large man taking the emotional abuse.
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.

Week 2

After reading the stories from this week, I got more into the Dubliners. There's always re-occuring themes in these short stories. In "After the Race," Jimmy's father basically fosters Jimmy's social status. Like many characters in The Dubliners, Jimmy has a moment of revelation in which he recognized the truth of his situation but does nothing about it. It is ironic how he knows he will regret playing poker the next day, but it is actually already daylight of tomorrow. What I got out of "After the Race" was that Ireland always finishes in last place. In "Two Gallants," the two main characters are pretty much "playing Ireland". Lenehan yearns for a comfortable,settled down life, and he's so desperate for money, he ends up duping maids with his friend Corely. There is a constant worry for betrayal, which is another reoccuring theme throughout the book. I like how the themes keep popping up, it is interesting to catch them as we read.

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Chelsey Cresap Blog Week 2

This past week we read the two short stories "After the Race" and "Two Gallants." These two stories had a similar messages, both having to do with the main characters recognizing the truth about their lives but the choose to go on and do nothing about it. Jimmy in "After the Race" is playing a disasterous game of poker. He gambled away all of his money and thinks to himself he is going regret this in the morning. He then realizes the sun has already come up and he feels no different. This symbolizes Ireland realizing they need to change but nobody ever does anything about it. In "Two Gallants" two men make a living by getting girls to steal for them. These men are low lives, both shallow and shady. They do not have strong ambitions for life and basically depend on everyone else for their success. This story is ironic because it is called "Two Gallants" and the two men are not gallants at all. Through out all of the short stories in The Dubliners the messages all seem to be the same. There is symbolism for Ireland, how the are a basically a disgrace of a country and how they need to better themselves. Joyce contantly refers to the lack of change, just how he did by Jimmy in "After the Race." He also refers to Irelands laziness and lack of ambition to better their own country as he shows again in "Two Gallents." After reading over all the blogs a lot of them sound very similar to mine. In response to Jordan I agree. I thought I would get used to his style of writing but I haven't. I never fully understand what the stories truley mean until we talk about them in class. It is very difficult to decode all of the hidden meanings and stabs towards Ireland.

Response to Leah,

I agree with you when you say that all the stories (that we have covered in class) have bad endings, and really lead to nothing. It makes it difficult to read through these stories because they are rather boring and i feel that while i am reading i am just looking for Joyce's method of revealing some sort of symbolism. I have to go back and re-read various paragraphs because i am too focused on searching for the meaning rather than the story itself.

JORDAN WELLS - WEEK TWO

This week we had to read "After the Race" and "The Two Gallants." I thought that these two stories were more difficult to read than the previous stories we read last week. Each story leads to a moral in the ending, sometimes i hard to catch the meanings due to Joyce's writing style. In "After the Race" we learn the differences of other countries through symbolism given within the peronalitly traits of the characters. I didn't really understand the symbolism after reading, the story lead to nothing, leaving it very confusing for me to understand. In "The Two Gallants" these two men, with very little values, use women to steal for them. These two men are low class people and there actions are disturbing.

Week 2

To comment on what Victoria said, I agree with much that you had to say. First off, once we went over the stories in class, a lot of things made since, as you noted. I think that was dead on when you said how all of the reoccurring symbols and themes portray Ireland’s issues. And nothing James Joyce does is an accident. My least favorite story was “Araby,” as well. The ending was inconclusive it seemed like.

Blog Post-Week 2

Upon reading the stories this week, I again noticed that the characters always have a moment revelation in which they recognize the truth of the situation, but do nothing to change it. In “After the Race”, Jimmy loses a game of cards, and gives a speech as he was intoxicated completely embarrassing himself. He hangs his head in his hands, knowing that regret will set in the next day, but the funny part about this is the next day is already there. This story suggests that regret is always lurking; as he ignores the situation he covers it with his obsession of wealth. The next short story, “Two Gallants” is about two men who convince a maid to steal from their employers. These men both live a shallow life, and are not very ambitious. The ironic thing about this story is these men are far from ‘gallant’, as the title of the story is “Two Gallants”. One of Joyce’s techniques throughout the Dubliners is using deep underlying messages about Irelands past, for instance, in “Two Gallant” a harp is used which is a traditional symbol of Ireland. Again, Lenehan’s dinner reflects the colors of Ireland’s flag, green peas and orange ginger beer. As we talked in class, the stories gradually begin to change and the characters start to grow as the stories go on. For example, the first few stories were about young boys, to teenagers and finally the last story “The Dead”. I find this very interesting, and as I continue reading these stories I find myself becoming more involved in each story.

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.

First Week of Blogs

Class:

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.

Upon reading James Joyce's first few stories this week, I was some drawn into the dark, troubled times of Ireland that he seemed to cleverly incorporate into all of his works. The slight nod to a seemingly trying time period gave it a distinctive jolt to my attention. The first story, "The Sisters," consisted of a predominant theme involving the death of a priest, with a twist of mystery. What were the intentions of this crooked priest? Nothing in Joyce's works are unintentional, I can't help but wonder the reason behind this queer character. The second story, "The Encounter", was a showcase of Ireland's dire need of change, and we as human beings, to this day, are stuck in our unwavering routines. In the third story, "Araby", the symbols used to represent "coming of age" were unique. At the end, the boy goes through a discrete, but very life-altering experience. The story was very dark, as is all of these short stories in the collection. In "Eveline", she had a gateway to freedom, and she turned it down with no excuse but unfinished business. In conclusion, each individual short story by James Joyce has a dark, twisted storyline with a clear cut point.

First impressions from James Joyce's Dubliners

As we discussed in class last Friday, James Joyce's writing style can be 'sneaky'. His stories are descriptive in an attempt to engage ones mind in with the story. Some lines seem to fit in with the story, peering as a normal way to set the scene. Others have seemed to be unnecessary bits of information, steering away from the point of the story. Regardless to what these appear to be, most of these lines in the story serve a purpose for Joyce's deep underlying message about Ireland's past. I personally find this style of writing unique and impressive. To be able to write a story that is informative and entertaining is a true challenge. Another technique of Joyce's was the use of recurring themes, the most notable one being the theme of paralysis. The priest's physical downfalls as he battles old age, the strange man the boys encounter leading a life without morals or promising future, and a priest's demise, all focus on the paralysis of individuals and Ireland. I look forward to further picking apart Joyce's writing in the upcoming stories in Dubliners.

After reading the first four stories of the Dubliners, there is no doubt that all the stories have something very unique to them. Each story seems to focus on an epiphany in which the characters are strongly affected. The first story, "The Sisters", deals with death. The young boy in "The Sisters" is struck by the death of friend Father Flynn. In the second story, "An Encounter" these two boys decide to "escape" and skip school for a day and walk through Dublin. The two boys meet an older man who talks to the boys in rather disturbing fashion. This story exhibits the fact that new experiences can end up being very disturbing. After the first two stories it is apparent that James Joyce likes to write about the dark sides of life. In the third story, "Araby" James Joyce suggests that all people look for love and new life experiences in various aspects. Araby is a bazaar to which Magan's sister wants to go. The narrator, promises Magan to bring her a gift from this bazaar. In the end of the story the boy realizes his foolish dreams. The fourth story, "Eveline" deals with the struggles of holding onto the past when looking into the future. This story, like the others stories, has a strong meaning to it.

Dubliners Blog Post 1 Jebediah Pritchard

James Joyce writes in a very certain style, with a specific articulated method. The short stories that were covered for the week share a theme. That theme, is a theme that is pervasive in Joyce's Dubliners . That overarching theme that pervades the short stories is one of death and how death is dealt with. One may rightly wonder in reading the first stories as to why I would speak of them all as absorbed in the cloth of death. Perhaps it it more of doom, and the foreboding that certain events in life, events common to us all, having in fact in them each a dark hue. In " The Sisters", a priest does in fact die, in the most literal way, it is not a unique event in the stories, however. In "An Encounter " Joyce and his mate end up meeting an old man who is rather odd, and who puts the boys somewhat ill at ease. In reading the excerpt many conclusions can be drawn and to what the exact relationship between Joyce and the old man is, the view could be taken that the old man represents a sort of undeadness, yes the man breathes, though he is antiquated, as some odd carnival show that is broken in every way, though some how still lives on, en viced in the endless ever repeating stories(as they appear to be to Joyce), this I believe portends to death as well.
One may wonder how "Araby" can be about death, or some similar construct, and it is , though a romantic death occurs. A slow, painful sorrow comes over Joyce as the events of the bazaar evening do not go according to plan, nor in fact, the real fact, the events do not go to heart. A death all to familiar .
Jebediah Pritchard