Blog 3: A Little Cloud
One of my personal favorite stories in Dubliners was “A Little Cloud,” as I feel it sums up the feeling of wanting more than the mundanity one has attained in their life. As well as the relatable feeling of jealousy one may feel when hearing that someone is following the dream that one couldn’t feasibly pursue. I think this story is also one of the great examples of the paralysis that exists in Dublin.
“-if you wanted to succeed you had to go away. You could do nothing in Dublin” this quote sums up many feelings on the paralysis or lack of inertia that exists in Dublin as if staying in Dublin ultimately leads to perpetuating a life of cyclical stagnation (Joyce, 29). As Little Chandler walks to meet Gallaher, he mulls over the choices that led him to stay in Dublin and what caused Gallaher to live the exciting life he had always wanted. Little Chandler subsequently begins contemplating his soul, as he wonders if his soul is one of a poet that has never been given the chance.
The constant push and pull exist in Little Chandler’s mind throughout the intro before the audience is introduced to Gallaher; the push of wanting to be a poet versus the pull of the safety and home he has cultivated in Dublin. Though he doesn’t like his job, it is steady, and he has reached the point of having a middle-class family, although it perpetuates stagnation, it seems to be all that Little Chandler knows. And the paralysis exists as he is scared to take the leap of starting a new life, as he is thirty-two years old and feels as though he should settle.
After Gallaher is introduced, the yearn for a new life suddenly attacks Little Chandler, and this theme builds until the very end of the story where he reaches his breaking point and yells at his crying child. This event fully completes the cyclical image of life in Dublin. Many of the male father figures that are encountered throughout Dubliners are those who are mean, harsh, abusive, strict, etc. but this comes from the constant cycle of having fatherly figures consistently emote in that way. This creates a space where young boys learn from a young age that though it is a harsh reality, that is just how fathers are. The moment that Little Chandler yells “Stop!” at his crying infant, is the moment that completes the cyclical capsule of his life as a typical Dublin father figure.
Many of the citizens of Dublin seem to want more than the life they were given, but in “A Little Cloud” the story of Little Chandler goes so in-depth on this concept that I think it is one of the best examples I have found. The push and pull create a paralysis of the mind until he has the actual epiphany that he knows it is not the life he wants, which causes him to act out at the end of the story. The shift in Little Chandler from the beginning to the end of “A Little Cloud” is not a drastic change in his state of mind but rather how he acts physically. He is a small and fragile man who seems shy and quiet, but at the end, he transforms into anger and volatility, this completes the image of what his life has become and how predictable his life will be as he stays in Dublin.
One of my personal favorite stories in Dubliners was “A Little Cloud,” as I feel it sums up the feeling of wanting more than the mundanity one has attained in their life. As well as the relatable feeling of jealousy one may feel when hearing that someone is following the dream that one couldn’t feasibly pursue. I think this story is also one of the great examples of the paralysis that exists in Dublin.
“-if you wanted to succeed you had to go away. You could do nothing in Dublin” this quote sums up many feelings on the paralysis or lack of inertia that exists in Dublin as if staying in Dublin ultimately leads to perpetuating a life of cyclical stagnation (Joyce, 29). As Little Chandler walks to meet Gallaher, he mulls over the choices that led him to stay in Dublin and what caused Gallaher to live the exciting life he had always wanted. Little Chandler subsequently begins contemplating his soul, as he wonders if his soul is one of a poet that has never been given the chance.
The constant push and pull exist in Little Chandler’s mind throughout the intro before the audience is introduced to Gallaher; the push of wanting to be a poet versus the pull of the safety and home he has cultivated in Dublin. Though he doesn’t like his job, it is steady, and he has reached the point of having a middle-class family, although it perpetuates stagnation, it seems to be all that Little Chandler knows. And the paralysis exists as he is scared to take the leap of starting a new life, as he is thirty-two years old and feels as though he should settle.
After Gallaher is introduced, the yearn for a new life suddenly attacks Little Chandler, and this theme builds until the very end of the story where he reaches his breaking point and yells at his crying child. This event fully completes the cyclical image of life in Dublin. Many of the male father figures that are encountered throughout Dubliners are those who are mean, harsh, abusive, strict, etc. but this comes from the constant cycle of having fatherly figures consistently emote in that way. This creates a space where young boys learn from a young age that though it is a harsh reality, that is just how fathers are. The moment that Little Chandler yells “Stop!” at his crying infant, is the moment that completes the cyclical capsule of his life as a typical Dublin father figure.
Many of the citizens of Dublin seem to want more than the life they were given, but in “A Little Cloud” the story of Little Chandler goes so in-depth on this concept that I think it is one of the best examples I have found. The push and pull create a paralysis of the mind until he has the actual epiphany that he knows it is not the life he wants, which causes him to act out at the end of the story. The shift in Little Chandler from the beginning to the end of “A Little Cloud” is not a drastic change in his state of mind but rather how he acts physically. He is a small and fragile man who seems shy and quiet, but at the end, he transforms into anger and volatility, this completes the image of what his life has become and how predictable his life will be as he stays in Dublin.
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