We are going to talk about Dubliners by James Joyce.

and read
the Plot Summary of three stories and discover their meaning .
But before that Let's answer some questions.

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What is Dubliners ? : Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short
stories. The stories comprise a naturalistic depiction of Irish
middle class life in and around Dublin.

What about the historical background ? : The stories were

written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for
a national identity and purpose was raging.

What about the style ? : James Joyce used two styles .

"Realism" and " Symbolism" .

What about the Themes ? :

Religion : James talk about some issues about Catholic
Church. and some of his characters are imbued with a
Catholic worldview.
Social class : Economic class in Dubliners is relatively static.
For the most part, those who are born poor remain poor
throughout their lives .
Identity : The search for identity troubles every main
character in Dubliners .

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Now Let's read the Plot Summary of three stories and discover
their meaning.
1- The Dead : In "The Dead," Gabriel Conroy attends his
aunts' annual Christmas ball with his wife. He has an
awkward conversation with the housemaid in an
attempt to be friendly and a harsh disagreement with
one of the guests, who questions his patriotism. These
events make him nervous about a speech he is to give
after dinner, but the speech goes well. Later, when he
and his wife are in their hotel room, he discovers his
wife had a sweetheart who died before she met
Gabriel. This story and the other events of the evening
lead Gabriel to question his own mortality and sense of
worth.
Meaning: In this story we can see the struggle with
Gabriel identity and Gabriel learns that the trappings of
identity are largely an illusion.

2- After the Race : In "After the Race," a young man

named Jimmy becomes part of a international group
from France, the United States, Canada, and Hungary.
Jimmy's family is well off, but his new friends are
wealthy on a much larger scale. Only after he loses a
large sum in a card game with them does Jimmy begin
to realize that they may be out of his league.
Meaning: In this story we can see the Social class
differences when Jimmy loses a large amount of
money in attempt to keep up with his much richer
friends in a card game .

3- Grace : In "Grace, Tom Kernan's heavy drinking causes

him to fall down some stairs in a pub and hurt himself
badly. A respectable businessman who has gone into
decline, Mr. Kernan still has powerful and respected
friends who want to help him. They arrange to go to a
church service together in the hope that the power of
God will help Mr. Kernan to stop drinking.
Meaning: In this story we can see religion faith is
explicit when they ask for the power of God