Spiritual Poverty Exposed in The Dubliners
Joyce describes the spiritual poverty of the people of Dublin in the industrial age, with powerful images of mechanized humans and animated machines. In "After the Race" and "Counterparts" he delineates characters with appropriate portraits of human automation. Machines seize human attributes and vitality in opposition to the vacuous citizens of Ireland's capitalist city. Joyce's use of metaphorical language brings to life the despair of his country.
In Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson writes an allegorical account of the failure of mankind (1919). Although Anderson depicts rural life in the "New World," his understanding of human nature and descriptive terminology provide a valuable framework for examining Joyce's rendition of urban misery in the "Old World." "The Book of the Grotesque," the opening piece of Anderson's short story collection, animates the thoughts of a dying old man:
It was his notion that the moment one of the people took one of the truths to himself, called it his truth, and tried to live his life by it, he became a grotesque and the truth he embraced became a falsehood. (24, Penguin Edition).
This notion, that belief in a single truth or paradigm distorts people such that they become warped and can no longer function as human, is central to Joyce's characterizations of the Dubliners. Twentieth Century Homo sapiens can be distinguished from machines by their potential to think openly and consider myriad ideas without being paralyzed by a singular absolute. When people clutch an idea and transform it into an ideal, the separation between man and machine becomes blurred. Human automatons mechanically follow the programming of their truth.
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... demands that he find an outlet for his frustration, and he beats his child to slake the strange thirst for violence of an alcoholic.
When an individual seizes a single idea or paradigm they loose their humanity and assume the form of a grotesque machine. Joyce's characterizations of mechanical people and animate machines in The Dubliners follow this philosophy as presented by Sherwood Anderson, and reinforce its applicability. Dubliners are anesthetized by their truths and experience a paralysis of their human possibilities. Only dull machinery remains. This machinery is then capable of great inhumanity as it follows the scripture of its truth. Alcoholics can beat children, Capitalists can ravage countries, and Nationalists can fight wars (religious or profane) to exterminate other ethnicities.
Works Cited:
Joyce, James Dubliners, New York:Penguin, 1993.
“Dubliners” by James Joyce was first published in 1914. It is a collection of short stories, which takes place in the same general area and time frame, moving from one individual’s story to the next. Boysen in “The Necropolis of Love: James Joyce’s Dubliners” discuses the way the citizens of Dublin are caught in this never ending misery because of the lack of love- mainly instituted by the “criminalization of sensual love” from the church- and the economic stress, and struggle to survive. Zack Brown goes through the individual short stories, pointing out their references to paralysis, as well as a few other themes in “Joyce’s Prophylactic Paralysis: Exposure in “Dubliners.”” “James Joyce’s usage of Diction in Representation of Irish Society in Dubliners” by Daronkolaee discuses the background knowledge of the culture and particular details of the city that enhance the understanding of the reader and enforce the ideas presented by Boysen and broken down by Brown. These analytical articles help support the idea that Joyce uses
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30. Drucker, G. (1987) The Defining characteristic of Society: Postpatriarchialist deconstruction in the works of Joyce. Cambridge University Press
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James Joyce created a collection of short stories in Dubliners describing the time and place he grew up in. At the time it was written, Joyce intends to portray to the people of Dublin the problems with the Irish lifestyles. Many of these stories share a reoccurring theme of a character’s desire to escape his or her responsibilities in regards to his relationship with his, job, money situation, and social status; this theme is most prevalent in After the Race, Counterparts, and The Dead.
In the story Dubliners by James Joyce, he writes about a few different themes, some of these being autonomy, responsibility, light, and dark. The most important of the themes though must be the individual character in the story against the community and the way they see it. I have chosen to take a closer look at “Araby,” “Eveline,” and “The Dead” because the great display of these themes I feel is fascinating. Many things affect the way the individual characters see the community, for example their family, friends, fellow citizens, or even new places. In Dubliners, the way the characters see the community affects them and other people around them.
Institutions that affect our social justice views can include religions, schools, our government, social networking and media. Our own identity of ourselves is highly impacted by the restrictions and judgments that come along with these institutions. Whether you believe in it or not, you are impacted directly by the views from these institutions. The views of these institutions can be a determining factor in your decisions, because if you decide the rebel against these views you can look like an outsider. Social justice defines what should be done in order the live the perfect American Dream, be socially acceptable, fulfill life to the fullest and be an active member of society.
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In James Joyce’s Dubliners, the theme of escape tends to be a trend when characters are faced with critical decisions. Joyce’s novel presents a bleak and dark view of Ireland; his intentions by writing this novel are to illustrate people’s reasons to flee Ireland. In the stories “Eveline, “Counterparts”, and the “Dead”, characters are faced with autonomous decisions that shape their lives. This forlorn world casts a gloomy shadow over the characters of these stories. These stories are connected by their similar portrayal of Ireland. They clearly represent Joyce’s views on people’s discontent with Ireland.
Furthermore, alcoholism, which is looked at critically by Joyce, is still a large social problem today. Ultimately, Joyce challenges the reader not to settle for the ordinary life. In conclusion, one of the great short stories of the 20th century is James Joyce’s “Eveline.” The story breaks away from traditional thinking by making the case for hazard or taking chances over order and the routine of everyday life. Like his other stories in “Dubliners” Joyce uses “Eveline” as an avenue to share his frustrations with early 20th century Dublin.
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