134 Interdisciplinary Writing/Essay 4/Dr. Gao
2011
2010
Essay 4: one hard copy (7 pages—try your best)
Due on March 15th for grading
Visual Intelligence & Verbal Intelligence
Three stages: romance, precision and generalization
1. “Inclusive Practice” is one of the five CUSP learning goals. Inclusive
Practices focus on how best to deepen the richness of human experiencewith its differences of race, gender, ability, religion, age, language, sexual
orientation, and class- by developing capacities to
 identify our own and others' ways of knowing- verbal, visual, kinetic,
auditory- and make use of those different capacities.
 understand relationships between individuals, institutions, and authority.
 compare and contrast different cultural voices, traditions, and ways of
interacting with the world.
 exchange ideas with different communities, both on campus and beyond.
As an ideal, this definition focuses on inclusion, but leaves unspecified
how it is that we can best understand the lives of others. In James Joyce’s
“The Dead,” the whole story could be read as the step by step education of
Gabriel Conroy, to let him discover much about himself. Does he
understand the lives of others? More broadly, can any of us understand
ourselves if we do not learn to understand others?
Write an essay with the title, “Resisting Paralysis” in which you consider
how it is that Gabriel’s interactions with others enact a process of epiphany,
recognition and growth. Select at least three cases in which Gabriel’s
comments to (or thoughts about) others may seem to be innocent but
insensitive. In the cases you select, it is clear that Gabriel himself appears to
suffer a kind of “paralysis,” not because he is stuck or cannot make decision,
but because he has already made up his mind—and made a judgment on
someone. What is distinctive, however, is that Gabriel reflects on what he
has said, or has thought, in response to how others react to him. In
discussing paralysis in Joyce’s Dubliners, Craig Hansen Werner1 makes this
important observation:
1
Craig Hansen Werner. Dubliners: A Pluralistic World. (Boston: Twayne Publishers,
1988), 122.
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134 Interdisciplinary Writing/Essay 4/Dr. Gao
2011
2010
Articulating the world in a way that might be accessible to
the Dubliners themselves. [James] Joyce maintains a version
of literature as an active form of resistance against paralysis.
Dubliners, like Dublin, incorporate numerous versions of the
world. To confuse any single version with the entire world—
to deny the plurality of interpretation—is to paralyze: the text,
the world, ourselves. (Werner 122)
In “The Dead,” is it easy for Gabriel to see himself? Notice, for
example, that the story alternates between narration that focuses on what he
says or does, and his own narration about his reactions to what happens.
How is reading Joyce’s story like the active form of reflection in which you
realize, only after you have said something, or thought something, how these
events reflect back on you? Werner’s comment implies that “literature” is
something that happens: it forces you to think. In your essay, focus on how
Gabriel learns, step by step, to think more fully and with more self
awareness of the lives of others. In working out your argument, you should
also consult chapter 10 in Frames of Mind.
2. After listening to Gretta’s “confession” regarding her love for Michael
Furey, what is Gabriel’s reaction? This part of the story is obviously very
difficult for Gabriel. It is in some ways a crisis for him, but what do these
revelations mean to Gretta? After she tells her story, what does she do? In
interpreting the ending of “The Dead,” general readers and professional
critics alike tend to divide into three camps: the pessimistic, the optimistic
and the neutral—usually because they see that this might be a severe crisis
for this marriage. But the ending of “The Dead” seems open-ended,
making a greater demand of us, that we understand Gabriel imaginatively,
not try to stand independently apart from him to ponder the possible
ambiguities of the end of the story.
In your essay, trace the unfolding of the ending, to follow how Gabriel
feels. In particular, relate the ending to earlier details in the story that seem
to prepare for the end, and how they may strike us as ambivalent. The name
of the servant girl, Lily, connects to the lily as a flower that is commonly
used for funerals, but is the connection in the case of Easter also related to
rebirth or resurrection? You may want to use these three words, pessimistic,
optimistic or neutral, as a road map for developing your argument. Don’t
jump to a conclusion: follow the ending with your mind open and your
attention on what Joyce writes.
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134 Interdisciplinary Writing/Essay 4/Dr. Gao
2011
2010
The crux of the text may be in this sentence: “Better pass boldly into that
other world,2 in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally
with age” (Dubliners 197).3 In this sentence, three modes of living have
been put in comparison and contrast: that of Michael Furey who might
appear to have passed boldly into that other world in the full glory of his
passion, and that of two aunts who seem to have or will have faded and
withered dismally with age. What is the third model of how to live and how
to die that is not stated in the text? What is best? You may find it useful to
consult Richard Ellmann’s essay on the background to the story,4 as a way to
think more fully about whether Gabriel will be able to overcome his own
paralysis
3. For this option, write an essay with the title, “Vision and Reflection in
James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’” The main problem you are to follow out is this:
how do the characters in the story see what is presented to them? Do they
understand what they encounter? Do they, in other words, reflect on what
they see? The story itself is full of examples where noticing details—of
dress, appearance, condition, sound—tells us as much as what characters say.
In this long and demanding story, we see most of what happens from the
point of view of Gabriel. But we also see what others appear to think of him.
In developing your argument, pay particular attention to the double sense of
2
The reference to “that other world” as the realm of spirits recalls the scene in Homer’s
Odyssey, where the ghost of Achilles addresses Odysseus: “Better, I say, to break sod as a farm
hand for some poor countryman, on iron rations, than lord it over all the exhausted dead.”
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. by Robert Fitzgerald. (New York: Vintage Classics, New York,
1990), 201.
3
James Joyce. Dubliners. Ed. John Wyse Jackson and Bernard McGinley. (New York: St.
Martin’s Press, 1993), 197.
4
Richard Ellmann. “The Backgrounds of ‘The Dead.’” Dubliners: Text and Criticism;
Revised Edition. Ed. Robert Scholes and A. Walton Litz. (New York: Penguin Books, 1996),
373-388.
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134 Interdisciplinary Writing/Essay 4/Dr. Gao
2011
2010
vision as both the literal fact of seeing something, and really, deeply
understanding it. How does that process allow us to understand our own
ability to really see what this story presents to us? VISION in this sense is
not the same as merely looking at objects. One strategy you might find
helpful in developing your argument is to ask how reading or reflecting
allows us to see things that are in themselves invisible, like love, or loyalty,
or pain. We don’t see them unless we are conscious, and willing to feel
what people experience. In your essay, part of your purpose should be to
make clear how the story helps you to see.
4. While most of our attention focuses on Gabriel Conroy, write an essay in
which you examine three other characters, using parallel structure: Lily,
Molly, and Gretta. What has happened to them? Consider, at the start, the
opening words of the story: “Lily, the caretaker’s daughter . . .” Literally,
the caretaker takes care of the house, but who takes care of Lily? Of Molly
Ivors? Of Gretta? How do they take care of themselves? Are they subject
to paralysis?
Paralysis takes different forms: it may be narrow nationalism in the case
of Miss Molly Ivors, and in different ways, failed romance, or romanticism
for Lily and Gretta. Is there any hope that Gretta can recover from her
paralysis? In its etymology, what does “Gretta” mean? Do you think that
Gretta’s revelation of her puppy love to her husband could become the first
step to her healing? Is healing something that one does alone?
5. James Joyce’s “The Dead” and Florian von Donnersmarck’s The Lives of
Others challenge us to redefine the relationship between the self and the
other. Both present a sometimes bleak, sometimes depressing picture, but
not just to depress us, but to reveal that relationship between self and other.
The Irish story and the German film, moreover, put that task in the context
of particular cultural institutions—family, school, artists and writers and
musicians, and especially in the film, the state, including the secret police.
What connects the works, however, is that both show over and over the
importance of empathy—in a simple definition, understanding and entering
into the feelings of another. Empathy is also not sympathy, which is usually
just feeling sorry for someone or pitying them—you feel bad for them, but
probably don’t really understand their feelings. For just that reason,
empathy is definitely not pity--which inevitably divides you from the other:
your pity for them puts you in a superior position, where you (who are not
suffering) feel sorry for them.
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134 Interdisciplinary Writing/Essay 4/Dr. Gao
2011
2010
Write an essay with the title, “Empathy in The Dead,” or “Empathy in
The Lives of Others.” In your essay, show in detail how the work you have
selected treats the issue of empathy. How does it develop? Since empathy
takes more imagination than sympathy, how are characters in the work
awakened by imagination to feel empathy for others? Your argument must
be grounded specifically in the details of the work: don’t just spout off or
give your opinions. Show exactly how empathy is treated in specific
episodes and relationships.
6. As an alternative to #5, show how the two works, “The Dead,” and The
Lives of Others can be compared, in their treatment of empathy. You may
want to focus your argument on this problem: How does reading “The
Dead” prepare you to watch and analyze The Lives of Others more
accurately, insightfully, intelligently.
7. Though a complex story, the plot of “The Dead” is minimal. What has
complicated the story is the web of human relationships it presents. But it is
also a text that has many allusions—direct or indirect links to other works,
which enrich our reading of Joyce’s story. By its very nature, an allusion sets
up subtle dynamics between two texts or contexts. For your essay, identify
some allusions in “The Dead,” starting from the title (see topic 1, footnote 2
above). Sometimes, allusions are indicated by a quotation—a title, a name,
a reference to events—but sometimes, they are implied. For example, many
parts of the story in “The Dead” strongly resemble Shakespeare’s Romeo
and Juliet. In more direct cases, Joyce may refer to a song, to an opera, to a
singer, to the Bible, which brings additional meaning into the story. How do
allusions contribute to or complicate the meaning or interpretation of a
literary text? When you have found allusions that interest you, do your
homework: look them up, read the other works, and think about how the
allusion expands the context of the story.
Academic writing involves a critical dialogue with other scholars. While
interacting with others or integrating other perspectives, try to maintain your
intellectual independence as showcased in Karen DiYanni’s essay. Be an active
reader and do not get intimidated by any big names. Evaluate your sources
critically at each step. Talk back to the text or texts.
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