Ulysses Patriotism Quotes

These are the last lines of Stephen's "Parable of the Plums" that he tells to Myles Crawford and Professor MacHugh as they walk out of the Freeman Telegraph office. What does Stephen's parable say about Irish nationalism and life in Dublin? To get you going, why do they throw down the plum seeds? Why does the parable involve two old women that have never reproduced in their lives? Why is that they climb to the top of a pillar meant to honor an Englishman?

These are the last lines of the "Sirens" episode. What's going on is that Bloom is remembering the last line of the patriot Robert Emmet's speech before he was executed. At the same time, he is waiting for the noise of a passing tram so that he can let out all the gas that has built up in his stomach. To an Irish reader, this passage would be extremely offensive. Joyce is mingling the dying words of their beloved patriot with the sound of a fart. Why would he do this? Is it possible for a sincere and powerful sentence to become sentimental and powerless simply from overuse? How would Bloom's fart undercut this sentimentality?

Here, the citizen rails against the lack of culture in England. This is one of his many "patriotic" rants in the "Cyclops" episode. It is plain to see how his Irish pride has caused him to renounce many things simply because they are not Irish. What would it mean for the citizen to be able to appreciate the culture of his oppressor? In what ways would it be degrading? In what ways would it be liberating?

Is Bloom's definition true? Here, he is countering the citizen's intensive nationalism. To what extent is his simple definition meant to simply calm down the patriotic fervor of the men around him?

Is one's nation always determined by the place where one is born? Imagine the case of an African slave born in the United States. Does that make the U.S. their nation? What more do you think the citizen wants from Bloom's definition? Is there anything you yourself would add to it?

These lines come from the start of "Oxen of the Sun." They are extremely convoluted because they are written in the style of English translations of old Latinate prose, but when we untangle them we find that the narrator is talking about the fact that part of a nation's strength can be found in the extent to which it respects procreation. What does it mean to treat a mother as a national figure? What national duty is she performing? Does anything seem morally wrong about treating mothers like Mina Purefoy as national heroes?

These lines come from Bloom's vain fantasy outside of Bella Cohen's brothel where he imagines himself as an emperor and the people gather to worship him. Here, Bloom's pride as a Jewish man is turned into his imaginary call for a nation named after himself. Nationalism often gets talked about as if it were a form of selflessness. How can excessive patriotism mask the pride and selfishness that lies beneath it?

These are Stephen's words to Private Carr at the end of "Circe," shortly before he gets socked in the face. At first glance, they seem selfish, but things are much more complex. How do these lines continue to build a picture of Stephen's pride in Ireland? What are the differences between Carr's nationalism and Stephen's (if he has any)? Is the desire to perfect oneself itself a sign of pride in one's place of birth?

At this scene in "Eumaeus," an old man and the keeper of the bar (who looks like Skin-the-Goat from the Phoenix Park murders) get in a big argument about the strength of the Irish peasant and which armies he should serve. Why is it that men who believe strongly in nationalism have to enforce their views on the people around them? How does the intentionally bored and cliché voice in this episode undermine their opinions?

This may seem like a bizarre quote for Patriotism, but we'll explain. In "Ithaca," Stephen and Bloom have just finished showing each other how to write in Gaelic and Hebrew respectively. Yet, here, we learn that their knowledge of these languages is only theoretical – that they don't actually speak them. Hence, instead of just sharing their respective cultures, what they are doing is enacting the sharing of their respective cultures (which they don't actually know that well). Why would the two enact the sharing of their cultures? Is this a sign of devotion to those cultures, or is there some other idea that is motivating their action?