An Honest Attempt At Deciphering James Joyce's Ulysses Book Review

Ulysses Review: I Am Not Qualified But I Will Still Try

An Honest Attempt At Deciphering James Joyce’s Ulysses

Post #: 134

5.19.2014

As you all know, -if you’ve been keeping up with me-, I’ve been reading James Joyce’s Ulysses for the past five months, and, if we’re being honest, it hasn’t been easy. Ulysses is, at first glance, one big jumbled mess. If you aren’t flipping through guides or dictionaries to understand a reference, you are hopelessly lost in a seemingly endless stream of consciousness and dated culture. Themes and motifs bounce around the pages, while ever changing perspectives and style nearly plague the reader into an overwhelmed surrender. All of these literary dramatics and the reigning sense of confusion often left me questioning how on earth this book has been cited as one of the best in the English language. In a book with so many conflicting ideas, structures, perspectives and topics, I struggled to find any real and consistent theme in it that could be beneficial and powerful to its reader. But, in spite of all the madness that is Ulysses, I think I have found my answer: family.

This book not only tackles religion, infidelity and home rule, but has a deep underlying theme of the search for a family. I find this idea immensely relatable to nearly every reader of the book, as every person, at one time or another, has struggled to define their identity within their own family unit. Some of us are lucky enough to be able to define our own family roles within our biological relatives, while others of us, are forced to look outside the home for people to play the part we need them too. Whether a friend stands in as a brother, a teacher as a mother, or even a coach as a father, we can define our own filial identi...

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...song choice. This whole book leads to this moment, the union of these two men and the permanent bond of father and son, so why doesn’t something more magical happen? Why is the highlight of their meeting their half-hearted attempts to make plans for future encounters?

Well, let me tell you.

Ulysses is probably the only book that gives an accurate depiction of these

Their respective quests for acceptance and family seem to end in “Ithaca” in Bloom’s kitchen. Bloom sees “the future” in Stephen and Stephen “the past” in Bloom. Though finally united in this moment, the two men will undoubtedly part was, still trapped in their respective desires in family for Ulysses shows that that life doesn’t always work out like a perfect story, and that the search for an identity never truly ends.

“To learn one must be humble. But life is the great teacher.” (II: 29, 406-407)