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.
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We are just scrapping the surface of the new book “Angela’s Ashes” and I already can get into this book a little better than the last, “The Dubliners”. Each chapter continues on with the story instead of a book full of chapters with short stories. It’s also easier for me to comprehend what is going on as I read. This book is also by an Irish author, so it had some of the same similarities. Both of the books deal with how bad Ireland is and the main theme associated with Ireland, alcoholism. Even though the book is just starting, I can already tell that I am not going to like the father Frank. He is a joke of a father. He has no job, and the money that he does come along, he goes out and drinks it away. When he does find a job, his first payment goes to the pub, where he drinks too much, has a hangover the next morning, and loses his job. He also makes children who he can’t take care of. The mother is really no better in this book. She pushes the children outdoors to play in the winter. The children eventually get sick and pass away from pneumonia. Then, the sadness, drinking and neglecting start all over again.
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