628 Joyce, James
spewing invectives against Lula’s (white) ignorance.
It is at this juncture in the play that the worst racial
epithets are spoken. Lula calls Clay “Uncle Tom Big
Lip” and “Uncle Tom Woolly Head,” while charg-
ing him to ignore the first racial guise (buttoned up
middle-class intellectual) and act the black part—to
act like the “nigger” she screams he is. Clay refuses
further advances on Lula and declares her foolish
and undesirable; he thus rejects the racial role she
tried to force him to play, and this results in his
murder. Lula, humiliated and defeated in her twisted
racial game, stabs Clay and enlists the help of others
to dispose of his body. She asks the other passengers
to get Clay off of her, thereby linking racism to a
supposed sexual attack.
Sadly, his death is neither martyrdom nor wake-
up call—his body is dumped off the subway car
and Lula immediately sets her sights on the next
black man she sees. Thus, Dutchman can be read
as a cautionary tale for young black men to resist
the temptation to wallow in racial stereotypes to
attract women, or to refuse to allow white America
to determine their racial identity; young African-
American men must know who they are before
taking on the world. It also showcases the need for
black men to remain on guard against white seduc-
tion, regardless of what form it takes.
Sharyn Emery
joyCE, jamES Dubliners ( 1914)
Dubliners is a collection of short stories about the
people who live in the city of Dublin. When ques-
tioned about the stark nature of his stories, James
Joyce replied, giving us an insight to authorial
intention:
It is not my fault that the odour of ashpits
and old weeds and offal hangs round my sto-
ries. I seriously believe that you will retard the
course of civilization in Ireland by preventing
the Irish people from having one good look
at themselves in my nicely polished looking-
glass. (xv)Most of the stories have no plot, in the traditional
sense of the term, and have as their central focus the
people in them. The stories touch on a myriad of
issues, such as identity, both personal and national,
religion as it affects the average Irishman, personal
relationships in their various forms, and the struggle
to come to terms with one’s place in the world.
Through magnificent storytelling and characteriza-
tion, Joyce takes the reader on a journey, not only
through the city, but also through the psyches
and emotional labyrinths of his various characters.
Despite being a collection of individual short stories,
persons and places move seamlessly across stories.
Not only are people interconnected and bound to
society, they also cannot seem to escape their cir-
cumstances. Such is the fate of the Dubliners that
Joyce portrays in this collection, adding to the poi-
gnancy that pervades the text.
Throughout Joyce’s literary career, national iden-
tity remained a prime concern, and all stories deal
with this issue in one form or another. More impor-
tant, the concept of “nation” is explored from the
perspective of the common person affected by its
political and cultural anxieties. In some stories, this
is dealt with directly, such as “Ivy Day in the Com-
mittee Room,” which gives the reader an insight
into the politics of Ireland. In “The Dead,” national
identity is explored through the cultures, literatures,
and languages one adopts. In other stories, such as
“Araby,” nation is explored in a more subtle manner.
Related to nation is the issue of religion, explored
in the stories “The Sisters” and “Grace.” As with
issues of nation, Joyce is concerned with religion as it
affects the common person. More important, Joyce
explores the emptiness of religion in the modern
world, and how humans seem to have drifted further
and further away from meaningful fellowship with
God. Family is another concern that runs through
all of Joyce’s work. In this collection, family is seen,
more often than not, as a source of oppression. In
“A Mother,” the mother figure is portrayed as an
overbearing, authoritarian, and unreasonable person,
and the daughter a meek young girl who allows her
mother to make decisions on her behalf. In “Eve-
line,” a young lady makes a promise to her dying
mother to look after the family, a promise which
later makes it impossible for the young lady to leave
Ireland. In “Counterparts,” one is given an insight
into domestic violence, and in “A Little Cloud,”