Kim Jae Min Reading Journal Blog

 A Mother, By James Joyce (1914) 7/10 It was interesting to see how Joyce tweaked what might have been a very cliché situation. In most situations where a mother protests about her daughter’s rightful. payment, she would seem brave and righteous. However, Mrs. Kearney seemed like the opposite of righteous. This may be because instead of protesting for her daughter, Mrs. Kearney is fighting for her pride. Unlike most good parents, Mrs. Kearney sees her children only as a tool to improve her social value and keep her pride. It was sad to see Kathleen not standing up to her mother, who might have just ruined her one chance of becoming a professional singer. Four guineas are not worth a lifelong job, let alone a dream coming true. This also reminded me about how big are the influence parents have on their children’s life. My favorite part of the story was how Mrs. Kearny blames Mr. Holohan and others. But the real reason she faced such humiliation was her own stubbornness. I rate...

 Clay, By James Joyce (1914) 7/10 The game Maria played during the story reminded me of a Korean tradition called ‘dol-ja-bi’. When a baby becomes exactly one year old, the baby gets to play a simple game for the highlight of his or her first birthday party. Several objects are laid in front of the baby, and the baby has to pick one of the objects. Then, we predict the baby’s future based on the object he or she chose. For instance, a pencil would mean the baby would be smart, while a string would mean the baby would live for a long time. The objects differ in what they mean, but they share the property of being positive. Thus, I was mildly surprised when I read that the clay means near death. In Korean culture, death is greatly shunned, and saying that a elderly person may soon die is considered very rude. I guess the fact that this game is played at Halloween might have influenced this game including death as one of it’s predictable futures. It is interesting to see how a sim...

 An Encounter, By James Joyce (1914) 8/10 This story was very shocking to me. I really didn’t expect to read a story about a pedophile talking to children. At first, I wasn’t even able to understand why anyone would decide to write a story like this. After reading the story a few more times, I was vaguely able to have ideas about what Joyce wanted to express with the situation. I felt that the world of the children was so very pure. The innocent children and their small, simple entertainments bring smiles to our faces. I thought that the creepy man is not just a pervert character made to progress the story. Instead, he seamed like a symbol of everything opposite with the two boys. He is old, lying, lustful and totally not innocent. The story is even somewhat tragic, since the creepy old man must have once been a young innocent boy himself long ago. Also, the two boys lying about their name was clever for sure, but it also made me a bit depressed seeing that the boys are not per...

Two gallants, By James Joyce (1914) 7/10 The strongest feeling I felt throughout the story was pity for Lenehan. He is suffering from a toxic friendship, insecurity about his manliness, and the fear of living his life the wrong way. He may have made a lot of wrong choices in his life, but he is still just a weak man after all. I felt that the ending of this story is one of the typical ending James Joyce used for the short stories in <Dubliners>. Corley showing the golden coin to Lenehan is quite similar to how the narrator explains the feelings of the boy in <Araby>, and also with how the narrator explains the expressions on Eveline’s face in <Eveline>. In all these stories, Joyce slowly builds up the tension throughout the story, and uses the ending to perfect it. I liked how Joyce used the word ‘gallant’ to describe Corley and Lenehan. These two are nothing like gallants. In fact, there manners are almost the exact opposite of chivalry. This irony made the cruel...