Essay on Spiritual Poverty in James Joyces Dubliners

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 Irelands capitalist city. Joyces 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†¦show more content†¦They seek an escape from the dreariness of Dublin, but mistakenly idealize mainland Europe as a vessel for their dreams of transcending the ordinary. With this idea of a utopia across the ocean, people loose interest in every day life and become stagnant. Belief in this myth transforms humans, reducing them to a state of mechanized paralysis without identity. Joyce animates the racing machines in the opening of the story, describing how they came scudding in towards Dublin, and each blue car received a double round of welcome (52). The spectators are dull masses in contrast to the vehicles: Sightseers had gathered in clumps to watch the cars careening homeward and through this channel of poverty and inaction the Continent sped its wealth and industry. (52). People here are inanimate clumps--mere obsolete hardware juxtaposed with the new line of refined technology from the Continent. The central character of After the Race is riding in one of these French cars and he is electrified by its performance. Jimmy--a Dubliner--has taken the truth of the Continents promise as his own, and has thus been disfigured himself into a machine. He pursues a business venture with several Continentals, driven by the falsehood of escape and prosperity that he and his father embrace. As a passive traveler in the car, Jimmy is aroused because rapid motion through space elates one (54). He mechanically responds to the stimulus from an embodiment of his truth: TheShow MoreRelatedJames Joyce Annotated Bibliography Essay3544 Words   |  15 PagesJoyces modernistic view of Dublin society permeates all of his writings. The Irish experiences account for a large portion of Joyces writings. Stephen Dedalus is sometimes Joyces pseudonym and represents Joyce and his life in Joyces works. Joyce plays a crucial role in the modernist movement in literature. Some of the well known innovative techniques used by Joyce are symbolism, realism and stream-of consciousness. James Joyces writings contain autobiographical matter and display his view ofRead MoreEssay James Joyce and Catholicism in Portrait and Dubliners3374 Words   |  14 PagesJoyces Juxtaposition of Catholicism and Aesthetics James Joyce was a prolific Irish writer who wrote about Ireland and the troubles the people of Ireland faced. According to the Volume Library Encyclopedia, with Ireland being about 94 % Roman Catholic, religion is a motif brought forth prominently in Joyces works. In Dubliners, his book of short stories as well as his supposed autobiography, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce shows religious turmoil and indecision through his charactersRead MoreLecture on Short Story5432 Words   |  22 Pagesdeliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents--he then combines such events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect† (Poe, Edgar Allan (1984), â€Å"Twice-Told Tales. A Review†, Essays and Reviews, The Library of America. 569-577). Intensity and tension are the two qualities that Poe singles out as distinguishing short narratives from longer narratives like the novel. Poe even prescribes the ide al length of the short tale as thatRead MoreANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pageswhere the major crisis, or turning point of the narrative actually occurs. Nor is there any special reason that the crisis should occur at or near the middle of the plot. It can, in fact, occur at any moment. In James Joyce’s â€Å"Araby† and in a number of the other companion stories in â€Å"Dubliners† the crisis – in the form of a sudden illumination that Joyce called an epiphany – occurs at the very end of the story, and the falling action and the resolution are dispensed with altogether. Exposition and complication