DublinersHow is it related to Modernism - 1657 Words

Reading a modernist novel entails bearing in mind a whole new world of ideas, a quite different perspective of giving life to those ideas than other written works and certainly a new aspect of accepting those ideas as a reader. It is not easy to pinpoint modernisms roots and it is also difficult to say exactly what it expresses. However, one thing that is clearly proved in a modernist novel is the fact that there is a change in the understanding of the human self and the interaction between characters and events. Perhaps the easiest way of understanding the ideology of modernism is to focus on a novel written by one of the most famous modernists concentrating on the techniques and the basic general ideas that are applied in it. Such a†¦show more content†¦He dreams of being far away in a country in the East, but then again he realizes that he is still in the city which he resents and, unfortunately surrounds him: I felt that I had been very far away, in some land where the customs were strange-in Persia, I thought...But I could not remember the end of the dream. Simply by interpreting this thought of the little boy, we can recognise how eager the Dubliners were to escape eastward and leave their city to a more living world. Joyces Dubliners could also be considered a work of modernist literature if we consider the last and longest story of this collection, The Dead. Again, this story is told through the consciousness of the characters but some times the narrative is made up of third person description: Gabriels warm trembling fingers tapped the cold pane of the window. How cool it must be outside! How pleasant it would be to walk out alone, first along by the river and then through the park! The snow would be lying on the branches of the trees and forming a bright cap on the top of the Wellington Monument. How much more pleasant it would be there than at the supper-table! This combination that James Joyce uses is to present the events as they are and to