Clay, By James Joyce (1914)

 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 similar game can be so different based on what culture it’s played.

I rated this story seven out of ten. (199 words)

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