Junyoung Ro World Lit Journal

  A Mother, By James Joyce (1914) Rating: 8/10 Mrs. Kearney felt like a Gangnam Mother in our society. She takes too much care of her daughter. This is the way that can stop her daughter's future. Now and then, people don't like interference from a person's family. The person doesn't have any feelings, but because of her family, she may be on the black-list from the committee.  In my experience, I also don't have good attention to whom are like mama boys. They grew up as well as to communicate with us, but their parents think that they are still young to give their opinion. This is the reason why this story is best related to me and easy to understand. I also felt that mothers who are like that were still there a hundred years ago. 

  Clay, By James Joyce (1914) Rating: 7.5/10 The most interesting part of this story was where Maria sings at the end. She is an old lady, and she is very deteriorated. So she sings the same part once more. No one points out her mistake, and Joe fell into tears. I think this is because of the theme of death. Maria is too old so Joe is worried about her death. And this situation, singing the same verse one more time, makes Joe feel that Maria is getting older. This seems similar to The Dead 's ending where Gabriel feels sad. His aunt Julia may be in the same situation as Maria.  The title clay means an early death. At first, I couldn't understand why clay was the symbol of early death. However, after hearing about the Halloween Game and the background in Dublin, clay is quite dark and hard to catch so it's like an uneventful early death which Maria is in.  The plot was kind of a hero's journey for Joe, which understood more about Maria. This is the another reason why I l...

  Two Gallants, By James Joyce (1914) Rating: 7/10 I want to talk about the title, "Two Gallants". A gallant means a man who is polite and kind towards women, especially when in public. It's an irony in this story. The two main characters, Corley and Lenehan, don't act as gallant. They are just 20C dubliners who are paralyzed in women. In this part, I think James Joyce made this title in an irony. Also, the gold coin may be a symbol. In this story, Corley got the gold coin from a woman. I thought this is quite different from modern society. In modern society, usually, women get money from men, but in 1904 Dublin, men get money from women. This part was interesting and shocking to me, and I think Joyce wanted to tell the readers that this is not right. The reason I rated this story 7 is that it was fun and interesting but it didn't come to me well. The interesting part was that there were parts where paralysis appeared a lot, and these parts were good to me because...

  The Boarding House, By James Joyce (1914) Rating: 8/10 I want to talk about the place 'boarding house'. A boarding house is a place where lots of people stay, but usually, people who aren't rich manage and those class of people stay there. Mrs. Mooney was worried of these guests. They aren't rich so they may seem bad, and they could do something bad to Polly so she was very sharp of the part from Polly. Guests stay long in the boarding house, so they are almost familiar with each other and know well about each other. Also there are such rules to keep in the house, so the guest may have been afraid of the owner. Mr. Doran might have been that too. He afraid Mrs. Mooney so it was difficult to meet with Polly.  Also I want to compare about the marriage with Eveline. In Eveline, the social background, which people thought that marriage is a kind of death to women, block marrying. In the boarding house, what Mrs. Monney thought about the husband could stop the marriage, bu...

 What I want to compare and contrast between Joyce and Chekhov is how they say about love. In 'Lady with the dog', Gurov is obsessed with the lady and always tries to follow her. And finally, there was a part about thinking about their future. In 'Eveline', Eveline loved Frank but she had a confusion so she didn't follow Frank and ran away.  I think there is a difference because of the analysis and the social background. First, in the analysis, Joyce's ending is more opened than Chekhov's. Like other stories in Dubliners, Joyce is trying the readers to make creative thoughts from his story. Chekhov is also making to think but I think it is less than Joyce's  Next, the social background can make this difference. I think Ireland in the early 20th century is more closed than Russia in the late 19th century. Ireland is related to the catholic, which is unsociable. So this can be the reason why James Joyce is making a big open ending than Chekhov. (171 words)

  Eveline, By James Joyce (1914) Rating: 7.5/10 In this story, I thought about the description of dead people by the narrator. I searched for some information about forms of death and found out that marriage could be a death in 20th century Dublin. Death means the end of one life and the beginning of a new life in Catholicism. Marriage is the ending of a solo and the beginning of partners. I think this is the reason why Eveline didn't follow Frank in the end. She might have thought living in a solo could be better that day. If he run away, his father could do something for families who were left in Dublin. Also, her trust in Frank was not that high. Her father said, "I know these sailor chaps." She might have heard it as a joke, but at the harbor, the word may be offensive so she didn't follow Frank. The reason why I rated 7.5 is the plot was too speedy to understand fully. Also, the easter eggs in this story were difficult for me to know well. Reading this time, I wa...

  An Encounter, By James Joyce (1914)  Rating: 8/10 The most sympathized part was to get out of the routine. Living in KMLA in a strict routine, makes me deviate. In this short story, the narrator and his friend Mahony make a deviation and wander around Dublin. And then they see many people and places and meet a man. I think this man has bad thoughts. He is so conservative. Maybe it is because of the Irish religion. Catholic is one of the strict and conservative religions that I know, so this man may be influenced by the religion. I liked this quote from the story. "But real adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who remain home: they must be sought abroad." I think this is like a hint of this full story. Because of this thought, the narrator could break away and see the society, meet a man that was an encounter. From this encounter, the narrator could feel better about his friend.  I think both <An Encounter> and <Araby> are similar as a growth stor...