James Joyce

I felt like James Joyce was a lot different from the other authors that we have read in this course. I am always interested in reading authors that are from Ireland because that is where my mom and dad are from. When I told them that I was reading his work they both knew exactly who he was because they had to also read him in school. He had a very different technique when he was writing especially after reading a story from the “Dubliners”. When he was finished writing these stories he claimed that he had “taken the first step toward the spiritual liberation of my country”. These stories were designed to have Irish people look at their lives whether they were mundane or not and they were pointed to looking in the home, hearts, and minds of the people.

After reading “Clay” which is an excerpt from the “Dubliners” I found it very boring. I do not understand how anyone would enjoy reading stories that really do not have anything happening in them. Maria is a maid at a Protestant Charity house which is for troubled women. This whole story just describes what happens in her day.

It goes through all of her actions through the day such as her maid duties, putting out her Sunday dress, going into town to buy cakes for her dinner party, and finally going to that dinner party. I am finding it very difficult to say anything about this story and it is hard to do interpretations because everything seems pretty clear.

I think that the pivotal moment in this book where there is some sort of story is while Maria is playing the Halloween game with the children. “She moved her hand about here and there in the air and descended on one of the saucers. She felt a soft we substance with her fingers and was surprised that nobody spoke or took off her bandage.” In this quote, she picks the clay which is supposed to be a sign of early death. I am not sure why Joyce put this part in the story because it does not go with the rest of the mundane story.

In the last part of this story, Maria sings to the group but sings the same verse twice but no one would correct her. For some reason, Joe is so moved by this that he begins to cry and to keep his mind off of it, he asks his wife for the corkscrew. For some reason, Joe seems to have deep feelings for Maria. I learned that Maria took care of him and his brother while they were growing up, but while through the story I seemed to take that Joe may have some stronger feelings toward Maria. He would have to in order to cry at a song that she was singing.

I know that this story was to show the true life of an Irish person and I believe it achieved that goal; however, I do not want to read about someone’s everyday life. I read stories for adventure and imagination. I think that James Joyce is one of my least favorite authors that we have read during this class.