Dubliners

In James Joyce’s Dubliners I found his stories to be interesting, but since we didn’t get a chance to talk about them in class I’m kind of wondering what the purpose of the stories are supposed to be. For example, in “Araby” he goes to the event because he wants to impress this girl that he likes and to buy her something special, but if you read the footnotes you come to realize that he has next to no money to buy her something with and the story ends leaving you wonder if and what he ended up buying her. It was a little random and disappointing.

“Evelyn” on the other hand was a little more dramatic. She had this once in a life time opportunity but her woman’s heart got the best of her and held her back. She felt guilty and stayed to help take care of her family when she could have had a potentially amazing life with this guy off in another country. This story had the potential of a fairy tale ending but instead it ends it with her being in the same place as she was in the beginning. I like fairy tale endings, so that was a little depressing for me. Haha.

I thought that the stories were unique and the style they were written in is interesting also. For example, he calls a dead end road a “blind road”. Maybe that’s an Ireland thing? Anyways, kind of interesting none the least.

Jhumpa Jhumpa

In Lahiri’s short stories I found it interesting that she blends culture with identity. I really enjoy learning about both culture AND identity, so I REALLY enjoyed these stories. Something that Maegan had said in her blog was “It seems to relate to my life somehow but I can’t really explain it. I somehow connected with these stories”. I found this to also be true. Even though I am not Indian and I have no Indian heritage I can definitely relate with the people in Lahiri’s short stories because in each of them the characters go through some kind of ordeal. They change, they grow, and they learn. We do those things in everyday life as well. Maybe I didn’t live in three different continents like one of the characters in the story, but I can relate to moving somewhere far from home and not knowing anyone and having to live with strangers. I too grew fond of some of these people that I had never known before. Similarly, I can relate to not having any money and having to work my way up from the bottom. These situations happen in life. I enjoyed, however, how she intertwined Indian culture into her stories. She made sure to describe Mala and how she dressed and how she acted. The reader can get a real feel for how she was and how it was for her and her husband when they were first married.

On another note, I didn’t speak up in class since this might have confirmed Heather’s accusations towards me of having my own sex diaries (I totally don’t even though I don’t think it’s weird AT ALL. Haha). But, I’m just saying…seizures can be caused by stress right? So, couldn’t it be that by having sex Bibi relieved the stress that was causing these seizures? It’s a possibility. Also, I’m not so sure that it was her cousin that raped her. She never said it was a rape. Although this is a possibility and she could just be keeping quiet out of shame I don’t think that’s what happened. I have a feeling it was consensual. She wanted to have someone. I don’t think she cared at what price that would cost. But who knows! Maegan says, “all she needed was a person to love her or for her to take care of”. This seemed to be the most popular idea, but I’m going my own unique idea. 