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.
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As we get closer to the end of the book, the stories are getting longer and the story lines are getting more dramatic and dark with the inevitable ‘death’ story on the horizon. In ‘Counterparts’, we have the stupid (and I say this with the utmost affection) Farrington who likes to drink a little too much which makes him do bad things to his boss and child – although you could say the boss had it coming. Personally I can’t blame Farrington on saying what he said to his boss. That job has to be the most monotonous job in the world. The only reprieve he has is going out to the bar with his buddies. Now, yes, he does go overboard – he loses his money, doesn’t get drunk and beats his kid. And at the end of the day, his life his even more unsatisfying as it was the day before. He’s stuck on a downward spiral that he probably won’t ever get off of. The story ‘Clay’ had the aforementioned sense of doom. In fact clay was an omen of death. ‘A Painful Case’ was very sad. The main character, Duffy, met a woman who he fell in love with. Unfortunately she is married. What’s even worse is that she dies which throws him into despair when he realizes his is, and probably always will be, alone. It’s a sad, again, spiral that he, who can be representative of Ireland, cannot get out of. The next story, ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room’, is very confusing to me. Americans from the 21st century really don’t get Irish history form 1910. I think this and all the slang Joyce adds is what really makes this confusing. If you, my classmates, understand, let me know.
ReplyDeleteTwo weeks ago when we first started reading “The Dubliners” I had lots of trouble with the stories, and couldn’t understand the epiphany’s at the end. Now I can comprehend the stories better, and understand the point Joyce is trying to make. I am finally used to her different writing style. This week we read the stories, “The Boarding House” and “A Little Cloud”, which I really enjoyed. What starts out as a simple affair becomes a game of obligation and reparation. “The Boarding House”, is interesting because a single mother, Mrs. Mooney, who cares and loves her daughter of 19, doesn’t care she messes around with older guys she is renting to. This in a way represents a “whore house”. They also call Mrs. Mooney “Madam”, which is suggestive towards her fastidious managing of the house. Mrs. Mooney schemes her daughter Polly into marrying Mr. Doran, because he comes from a higher class. In the end Polly attempts to kill herself, and then she suddenly realizes and knows Mr. Doran will comply with Mrs. Mooney’s wishes. The next story contrasts Little Chandler’s dissatisfaction with his life and wishes he could be more like his friend Gallaher, who writes abroad. Chandler who has a completely different lifestyle, long dreams of becoming a famous poet. Just like in each of Joyce’s stories, an epiphany happens. In addition to this story Little Chandler is left on his own, and faces his own shortcomings.
ReplyDeleteThe more I read Joyce the more allusions that I’m finding in his stories. Not all of which are relating to Ireland at the time. In the story “Counterparts” Joyce says “Mr. Alleyne flushed to a hue of wild rose and his mouth twitched with a dwarf’s passion. This allusion can be taken in three or more very different ways. One is Dwarfs in old mythology were very violent and foul mouthed creatures. Another says that they were very easy to insult and held a grudge for a long time. The last being newer; dwarf can be a reference to the high of Mr. Alleyne. In that case then it is the Napoleon complex, which means small people try to act tough in order to compensate for their shortness. As Joyce wrote I wonder which one he planned to use in the text. It is possible that he intended us to take all of them into account, due to the fact all three references hold true for what Mr. Alleyne did in the story. The farther we read into the Dubliners the deeper the allusion get and the more they allude to. I am interested to see how Joyce continues to use these to try and get you to think of the book as a whole not just individual.
ReplyDelete-Jason Hallman
I felt that the stories that were read this week were a little more complex and had more action to them than the previous stories. Although the stories this week were longer and had more going on, I still found it hard to find interest in them. The last story that we read, “The Ivy in the Committee Room”, I thought was very long and dragged out. I felt that there were too many characters beings introduced in the story and they would come and go fairly quickly. This gave me a hard time realizing who was speaking or who a certain character was speaking about. I really had no interest in the story at all, so it was hard for me to keep my attention focused on what was going on, or the lack of action in the story. Drinking was shown as an important part of this story much like the others. At the end of the story when the group of men were all together in the room, they all drank from their own bottle of alcohol and when a new person would join them another bottle would be opened for them. This seemed to me as a means for celebration, reflecting how the Irish love to celebrate their accomplishments or events in life with heavy drinking.
ReplyDeleteAs we read further into the “Dubliners,” we are met with more unique characters. In “Clay” and “A Painful Case,” there are two characters that are both alone. Maria, an old maid in “Clay” is growing old without a husband. She has her family, the two boys that she raised, but she has no one else to take care of. When she plays the traditional game with Joe and his family, she picks the clay, which symbolizes she’s going to die alone. Before she takes the blindfold off though, they signal a re-do, and this time she gets the prayer book. She is very upset with this, and as she sings a song, she repeats the first verse, only to cause Joe to cry. Joe has realized that she is without all the things in the song. She has no husband, and no great palace. In “A Painful Case,” Mr. Duffy is a lonely old man, but at the beginning of the story, he is more than content with that fact. He later meets Mrs. Sinico, and they begin a relationship. They shared thoughts and ideas with each other, and he was soon compelled to open up to her. As they ended their relationship after becoming too close, Mr. Duffy went back to being his lonely old self. When he had read of her death, something clicked in him. She was no longer there. He heard nothing the night he went for a walk. And he felt truly alone, and somewhat unwanted.
ReplyDeleteLeah Scabilloni
After reading the last few stories this week the one that really sticks out to me is the "Counterparts". I feel this way because the story deals with and confronts a very real problem that people have to go through everyday. I am, of course, talking about alcoholism. Being a college student myself I have seen the outcome and results of someone who abuses this powerful substance. So many people in the world today do not understand what alcohol can do to someone in the matter of a few moments. It is sad because it can turn the most respectable and honest person into a violent and evil individual. Many families in America and through the rest of the world have to sadly deal with the reality of a person who is struggling with alcoholism. I really like and appreciate how Joyce chooses to deal with this real life situation in the "Counterparts". Just like in many countries, Ireland has to deal with this situation with a huge part of its population being alcoholics. By having such a big percentage, as they do, the country can not go anywhere or make any advances. I feel that Joyce saw this and was very frustrated because a mere substance is holding back so many people from acheiving their full potential.
ReplyDeleteKris Braxton
In week threes stories, they got to be more easy to read. I thought that the story “counterparts” was a little bit wordier then it needed to be. Farrington couldn’t do what he was told and what his job required him to do, and in the end he took it out on his son. Like we discussed in class, the prayer that his son says, is interesting. It is interesting because it probably is not going to make his father stop hitting him, but it is almost like a safety spot for him. Just like Ireland, so many people want to leave but they just cannot do anything about it. They are stuck there. In “clay” there was only one reference to the word clay, and I didn’t even really think about it until talking about it in class, that the substance that she touched was clay. A little cloud was harder to read, and after reading these stories, it is hard to say which one I liked the most, or the one that was easiest to read. I am hoping that in weeks to come, the stories become easier to read and more easier to see the hidden messages that Joyce seem to like to put in there.
ReplyDeleteAlex Rhodes
For the third week, we were assigned to read The Boarding House, A Little Cloud, Counterparts, and Clay in Dubliners. This week especially, I found the class discussions to be very helpful in figuring out what was really going on in the stories because Joyce does not always clearly state what he wants the reader to know. For example, I didn’t know that Polly from The Boarding House was pregnant, or that When Maria from the story Clay touched the clay during a game at the party, it was a sign that she would experience an early death or bad luck in death. I am definitely finding it harder to make connections now that the stories, in my opinion are becoming more complex. There is still a very evident theme of sadness and something holding a character in each story back. I think it works well to James Joyce’s advantage to have each of the stories follow the same theme and have the same mood in order to prove his point that Ireland was not moving in a positive direction at that time. There is always a depressing ending for someone in every story, and nothing ever seems to change for the better by the ending. While these stories are in no way uplifting, now that I am used to Joyce’s style of writing, I look forward to reading his stories and finding out what happens to each of his tragic characters.
ReplyDeleteStephanie Iams
For this third week, we were assigned to read the “Clay” and “Counterparts”. I found it interesting that the story’s title was based off of one small scene. When I got the part in the story when Joyce mentioned clay, I knew that that scene had some significance. It symbolized how she was going to die soon. The story was about an old woman named Maria. She was an old maid who had no one but herself. She went over to her friend Joe’s house. There they played traditional Halloween games. This is when she chose the clay in the game. She then sings a song on her other turn which saddens Joe. I didn’t really see the point of this story. In the “Counterparts” the main character is a man named Farrington. Farrington is a man who likes to drink, a lot. So much to the point where it interferes with his job and his children back home. He and his boss get into a altercation where both of the men are very mouthy with each other. He sneaks off and drinks while at work, which made his boss even more unhappy with him. Later that day, he goes to the bar he has been waiting to go to. He buys everybody drinks and then forgets to really drink himself. He is just an unhappy man with a crappy life! Poor guy.
ReplyDeleteThe week, we recently read the stories "Counterparts", "Clay", and "A painful Case". As the book progresses the characters are getting older and each problem gets a little more serious. Out of the three stories, i thought "Counterparts" was the one that was the most serious and still happens today. After a hard day of work or after work in general people go out to have a drink. As a result, Farrington in story ended up beating his son Tom. Unfortunately, that still happens today due to being an alcoholic. At the time in Ireland, it seemed like that was the daily routine with people drinking after work and couldn't imagine all the troubles that came with it. “Clay” was interesting considering that the clay was considered a bad omen and that was the title. As the book progresses, every chapter doesn’t end in a good way. Everything has been negative and doesn’t look like things are going to turn around in a positive way. As the end of the book is comes closer, I don’t see any happy ending. Getting closer to the end, I am a little interested to see how James Joyce ends each chapter and if anything lights.
ReplyDeleteI found the past story “The Counterparts” to be more exciting and action-packed than the first several that we read in the Dubliners. I found it very difficult to feel bad for Farrington because he did little to better his situation, and for the most part he only made his life worse. Mr. Alleyne, Farrington’s boss, did not like him. However, his dislike for Farrington started when he caught Farrington making fun of his Northern Ireland accent. Instead of Farrington working hard to better the trouble he caused and to be a hard worker, he runs off secretly to the bar for a drink while working. This only causes more trouble for himself because he is then out of time and is unable to finish his copies for Mr. Alleyne. After work, Farrington finally sets out to do the one thing he wanted to do all day: go to the bar and get drunk. He decides to pawn off his wristwatch in order to have money to buy drinks. However, he cannot even accomplish this because he decides to buy everyone else drinks. Then after losing in an arm wrestling match twice in front of everyone at the bar, he heads home. When Farrington gets home he takes out his anger on his son by beating him. In this story Farrington has no one to blame but himself for his misery. He willingly did not do his work, he willingly gave his money and wrist watch away, and he willingly beat his child.
ReplyDelete-Ashley Aquilino
This week’s assigned reading included “Counterparts”, “Clay”, and “A Painful Case”. Once again, all of these stories show the theme Ireland’s hardships and the Irish’s inability to pull themselves up and out of their down falls. In “Counterparts”, Farrington is a man who has a dependency on alcohol to the point where he is drinking heavily during the work day. He is unable to get himself up and out of his problems and ends up beating his son at the end of the story. In “Clay”, an old woman, Maria, touches clay during a game and it is viewed as a bad omen for an early death. This story continues Joyce’s theme with the bad omen of death saying that not only Maria, but the whole of Ireland is coming closer and closer to death. In “A Painful Case” Mr. Duffy is an old man who not only couldn’t be with the woman he loved because she was married, but also is forced to face his own unhappiness of being alone when he learns of her death. This shows Joyce’s theme of Ireland keeping itself alone and isolated from the rest of the world.
ReplyDelete- Victoria Hampton
The readings from this week were a lot easier to understand. The more I read Joyce’s “Dubliners” the more I find things he almost seems to be hiding in the texts. He keeps using recurring themes over and over again. One of the most recurring themes I see is the alcoholism going on in Ireland. “Counterparts” is a perfect example of what it can do to you. Farrington the main character is always having a drink, he even leaves work for a period of time to have a beverage. He does not finish his work because he cannot get what he wants to do later that night off of his mind. Farrington gets into trouble with his boss because he pretends to turn in two documents he had to complete so he could leave but the boss found out that he was lying. Farrington while being yelled at got smart with his boss making the boss even more furious and Farrington’s day even harder. Because Farrington wanted to go drink so bad he kept messing up the document he was copying and having to start over again. Farrington could not get drinking off of his mind. Then finally when he did leave work he needed to pawn off his pocket watch for money to drink with. When he was out drinking he became more and more annoyed because of spending so much money. Then to further his bad day he was publicly humiliated in and arm wrestling competition. Because of his drunken stooper when he got home he beat his son because he was mad at himself. The alcoholism that he developed is stopping Farrington from his full potential just like most of Joyce’s characters.
ReplyDeleteNick Romus
This week we had two read the stories "Counterparts" and "Clay". I found these stories to be a little bit more compelling to read because they had more action and substance to them. In the story "Counterparts" the man character Farrington was a contract copier and he also had a drinking problem. He snuck out of work to go get a drink at the bar and he kept telling himself he could not finish the contract in time. I believe James Joyce was alluding to the people in Ireland having no hope of improving their situation and no matter what the issue the mentality was it is impossible. In addition, I thought it was interesting how Farringtons alcohol problem was emphasized time after time. I believe he was trying to say that alcoholism was a huge problem in Ireland at the time and that people would not be able to succeed with the problem. I thought "Clay" was a very interesting story. I thought a lot of the story was not needed for the point of the story to get across. I thought it was cool how he has such a small detail the heading of the story. Overall I thought these stories were a little bit easier to read then previous stories because there was more to it.
ReplyDeleteThe story "Counterparts" was a tale I found hard to find sympathy for. To me, it was just a tale of a man who thought he was "too good" for his surroundings and favored fun over hard labor. Being a college student, I know this type of person too well. In his job, Farrington thinks very lowly of his manager. When actually told to do work, all he can think about is how to scheme his way to the bar for a drink. It is plain to see why his boss dislikes him so. Once he belittles his boss, he pawns his watch (obviously signing off a sense of time) and makes his way to the bar. Once there, he embarrasses himself by being duped into buying rounds of drinks and losing an arm wrestling match. Feeling angry, he heads home and beats his poor son to make himself feel better about his life. I feel in Ireland during this time period, this kind of story may have been very commonplace. In "Clay" and "A Painful Case", the usual sad stories play out. Both the stories are about people with extremely uneventful lives and how they deal with their loneliness. Maria, in "Clay", is a very organized "goodie-goodie" who takes has very little stimulus in her life yet takes no steps to correct it. In "A Painful Case" however, the main character attempts to enhance his life, is frightened by what he finds, and rejects it. In all, more stories of people caught in limbo between having a pulse and truly living.
ReplyDeleteI found these last few stories very confusing and a little hard to understand. I did like some of the metaphors that James Joyce had put in to the stories. In “Counterparts” the main character Farrington was a drunk. Drank at lunch during his job and just wanted to get drunk all day everyday. At the beginning he was supposed to copy files but never ended up getting around to it because at break he got drunk at the bar. Farrington had money and he knew it so he would by other people drinks just so they can be drunk with him. I found one part where he gave his watch away, really cool because of what it meant. When he gave it away he wasn’t only giving away his watch but he was giving away basically his life. By giving the watch away for beer he gave up his ability to tell time which indicates that he didn’t care about time or his job at all, he only cared about drinking which became his life. When he gets home that night he kind of beats his kid for leaving the fire on from when he made dinner. He beat him because it cost money but he was also beat him because he was basically taking out his anger and troubles on his son.
ReplyDeleteI have to say these two stories were my least favorite so far. They first story “Counterparts” was just a ridiculous story of an alcoholic who beats his son, and can’t hold his job. It sad that he has a crappy life, but he needs to deal with it in other ways then beating his son. The fact that he fights with his boss shows that he is a very disrespectful man. It’s a very sad story because you really hope people in Ireland weren’t truly THAT bad. He beats his son over letting the fire go out but everything is just displaced anger. You feel sorry for the son because he is praying for his father not to hit him.
ReplyDeleteThe story “clay” used clay as a bad omen to mean early death. The woman in the story is already a widow and only has the family she is the maid for. She has a set routine that she was upset when it changed. This shows that people in Ireland could change and were stuck in the same loop. Its sad to know that Maria is never going to change and she will always be alone and stuck in an on going loop until her “early death” might come.
I would like to comment on Nick R’s blog, and I would have to agree with you about the readings getting easier. I think they are getting easier because we are finally getting used to Joyce’s different writing style. Joyce also has a lot of recurring themes that I’ve noticed as well. Alcoholism seems to be a big problem in Ireland.
ReplyDelete-Ashley B
As the “Dubliners” got to the end I found that it kept getting harder and harder to read plus the stories kept getting longer. I did like the stories though. I really liked ‘counterparts’ because of the character in it. Farrington has a tough life. He has to copy documents and cases all day and at break he can get a beer. But at break during this story he has more than just one beer he had too much and since he wasn’t a poor person he gave away his money to people so that they could drink with him. He eventually got himself into a situation where he gave his watch away. This was significant because it shows that he didn’t care about time anymore he just wanted to drink. He doesn’t finish his work because he doesn’t go back; he has almost half a page done and goes to the bar. When he gets home his son has dinner ready for him but he is mad at him because he wasn’t supposed to use the fire and he did. He hits his kid because he is pissed off and drunk which is what Ireland is like at this time.
ReplyDeleteAshley B
I agree with what Ashley B had to say about the whole book. At first I didn’t really understand the epiphanies at the end of the stories either. But as the book went on and we had discussed the books in class I started to get the stories and why he wrote them the way they are.