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I finished Dubliners a few weeks ago, but I have been slowly reflecting upon everyone's insightful comments. Initially, I didn't like how the stories abruptly ended. They were so dark and gritty and full of despair. No happy endings here. However, I really enjoyed the detailed descriptions of the people and places that made one feel like looking at photographs as if you were there as an observer.
Then I realized that the stories were progressing in stages from childhood to adolescence, adulthood and eventually death. Then I did some research on Joyce and found the quote regarding paralysis. I also learned that Joyce was associated with naturalism, which meant his writing style conveyed the cold facts without emotion and interpretation inserted by the author. Now all that realistic description made sense, and I understood why the characters had epiphanies but the reader was left to infer that there would be no real change effected and life would go on as it had. I enjoyed the stories much more after those realizations.
I also appreciated the collection much more when I stepped back from the individual stories and considered the major themes (e.g. love, parent-child relationships, disappointments, wanting to escape Dublin either through alcohol or foreign countries). There was so much to compare and contrast between the stories when considered in these terms. Also, I thought about how some of these themes were represented in the different stages of maturity, such as the love of a young boy or girl versus married couples.
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