James Joyce's 'Ulysses': An Analysis

Through the idea of stream of consciousness he captured his characters arbitrary manners including their thoughts and feelings. This allowed Joyce’s writing to be more understandable and convincing then previous writers. Joyce’s writing technique with the use of the epiphany, religious symbolism, and stream of consciousness gave the reader access to a deeper understanding of human experience by using subconscious associations along with the conscious thoughts of narrative for his characters.

The theme of isolation is a heavy premise throughout all three books that help to shape not only certain characters but also provide insight on fundamental qualities of their identities. The object of this essay is to prove who seems to be the most solitary character between the books Light in August by William Faulkner, A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In these stories, the idea of isolation is the loneliness that has been experienced in a characters life. Some characters have experienced their loneliness since early childhood while others have been kept isolated involuntarily. Although these three characters have taken different approaches in their lives, they all ended up isolated from society. As Alfred Kazin believes that Joe Christmas is the most solitary character in American fiction, I would like to discuss how both the villain in A Good Man is Hard to Find and the heroine of The Yellow Wallpaper would not rival Kazin’s opinion. Joe Christmas in Light in August proves to be the most solitary character I have read about, as he is never able to become a full member of society.

We all make mistakes that we later regret, but that's life. We need to focus more on just accepting to live with it.

The narrator suffers from catalepsy, a physical condition in which the individual cannot move or speak for hours or, in extreme cases, for months. According to the narrator’s explanation, what are some of the ways that one can tell a cataleptic is still living?

Beautiful imagery laced amidst a wondrous storyline, accompanied by memorable and lovable characters are all elements pertaining to enjoyable works of fiction. Tales that keep one up late into the night forever reading just “one more page” forever propelling the intrinsic imagination for a novel enthusiast. Yet, at times there are deeper meanings hidden between the lines. Symbols, analogies, and latent parallels all connecting to real life events and situations being portrayed by the author. Using literary theory can bring a more profound understanding of the reading material at hand, as well as unique insight as to what the author was feeling or intending to portray at the time of writing.

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.… Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.… And one fine morning—” (Fitzgerald 180). In this quote from The Great Gatsby, Nick attempts to describe the nature of Gatsby’s hope and draws the parallel to all of our hopes and dreams that we have as Americans. F. Scott Fitzgerald, an American novelist and short-story writer, was an amazing author who used his work, just like in the quote above, to write about the Roaring Twenties and the hopes of Americans during that time. His earlier works show an idealistic feeling for the potentials of life at college and in “The East,” he attained the sobriquet of “the spokesman of the Jazz Age.”

The short story, “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, shows pride in both a positive and negative way. This can be seen in the beginning of the story when the narrator describes his motivations to help teach Doodle how to walk. The narrator states, “I was embarrassed at having a brother of that age that couldn’t walk, so I set out to teach him” (Hurst 557). This is a negative portrayal of pride. This shows that the narrator’s pride got in the way of his love for his brother, and because he was worried about how other see his brother, he couldn’t be proud of what his brother truly was. His pride forced him to change his brother. Though this is a negative portrayal of pride, the author also incorporates positive pride as well. This is shown when

What is pride, is it a good thing? Pride is a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions, that are widely admired. According to Paul Bryant, “If  you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride and high, but so are the rewards,”which means pride is a good thing. According to C.S. Lewis”Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man… It is the comparison that makes you provide the pleasure of being above the rest.

In the tragic story “The Scarlet Ibis”, two young boys growing up during the great depression are met with challenges., especially that one of the boys (doodle) can’t walk. Due too Doodles disabilities his older brother becomes embarrassed,and selfish.

Too much pride in a person's heart, can lead him or her to a life of regret. The narrator from The Scarlet Ibis has a little brother who is physically disabled, Doodle. The narrator is embarrassed of having a disabled brother so he sets out to teach him how to do things like other regular kids. Eventually the narrator pushes Doodle a little too hard and the Doodle dies. James Hurst sets up a theme of pride and regret in The Scarlet Ibis.

Can you imagine being so overcome by pride that you let it take control and hurt someone close to you? In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the narrator has an internal struggle with too much pride which leads to bad decision making. As a child the narrator, wanted a little brother who would play and be just like him. But much to his dismay, his brother’s chance of survival were slim. Even when he did end up surviving, he could not even walk. Doodle, the name given to him by Brother, was small and fragile. That meant he would not be able to play and run around with Brother. So Brother decided that he would teach him. Pride is a common trait for humans but too much of it can lead to demise, and that demise just happened to be Doodle’s.

Shortly after his mother's death, in place of Stephen Hero, Joyce wrote A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which was based on the events of his life (Gifford 160). In this largely autobiographical novel, Joyce wrote that "I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to force in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race" (Gifford 177). Joyce appears as the character Stephen Dedalus in this book. Like Joyce, Stephen finds himself in conflict with his family, the Roman Catholic Church, and the nationalistic zeal of the Irish people. Also, like Joyce, Dedalus leaves Ireland and wishes to become a writer (www.jamesjoyce.ie). By depicting Stephen with a mixture of irony and sympathy, Joyce suggests the special importance of the artist in the modern world.

In this passage one may learn a variety of characteristics about the porter. First is that he is frightened at this point in the tale. The first couple sentences that the porter says, really shows how he is truly frightened. When he states, “God protect me. O lady, slay me not for another’s sin. All these men have sinned and offended, except me.”(103), this shows the porter rambling on and on about how he has not sinned. This is a characteristic of someone who may be frightened. Also in this passage the author makes it apparent that the porter gets frustrated with the scenario he is in. The part of the passage that shows that, is when the porter says, “By God, we had a delightful day.”(103). This short response sets up for even more frustration

The persona of the poem is Ulysses himself. Just like the Duke in My Last Duchess, he uses dramatic monologue. This is demonstrated when he talks to his soldiers during his past years as an energetic youth. Using the stylistic feature of flashback, he takes readers through his past life, connoting the excitement it brought him. He then brings one back to the present that immensely shows the contrast and equal discontent that Ulysses feels. The flashback also aids in building the image of the poem, in order to identify oneself with the persona. Furthermore, he uses a mixture of archaic and simple words, which is also seen in Browning’s

James Joyce and H.G. Welles had different styles of writing and relied on different forms of narration. H.G. Wells was direct and focused on the external environment or situation. He did not give much insight on the thoughts or internal struggle of his characters, while James Joyce did. Joyce supplied his characters with a greater level of internal comprehension than Wells did and was able to provide more human like characters. This difference is especially seen in H.G Well’s Tono-Bungay and James Joyce’s A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. They do share their views on the lifestyle of religious people, but there is a difference in their style of writing their respective novels. They contrast in how they convey emotional moments, they portray violence in different lights, and their view toward youth is contradictory.