humanity and the phenomenal/external world (ulysses)

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Originally Posted by Annesthesia

Need brainstorming help.. What is the nature of the relationship in ulysses between humanity and all that lies outside of our conventional definitions of it? How does the novel answer the question of where we end and where the phenomenal or natural world begins? Stephen claims to want to read the "signatures of all things." Does Joyce suggest that he succeeds in this endeavor? If not, does anyone else? What is there to read in Ulysses beyond the thoughts, words, and deeds of human agents? :crash:

Bloom is the hero of the novel - there can be no mistaking that. When we last see Stephen he has refused Bloom's compassionate offer for board and friendship, and he journeys off with no home in sight and really no idea of what to do. Generally, I believe it is put forward that Stephen is too abstruse and intellectual for the social world - he finds it impossible to apply his art to practical and monetary endeavors that is represented by the "patron" Buck Mulligan. I do not believe Joyce has Stephen succeed in his quest, but since the novel is only one day, perhaps Stephen will eventually be able to work everything out and make sense of the world. In fact, I believe that the suggestion of the novel is that, since Stephen is the autobiographical Joyce as a young man, and since Joyce was in his 40's (I believe) when he wrote Ulysses, it is hinted at that Stephen will grow to his potential to compose Ulysses. So perhaps Stephen will eventually make sense of everything enough to write as Joyce himself did.

All this aside, the ultimate expression of the novel is compassion, which has its fullest representation in Bloom, with whom the novel remains after Stephen has left. The final words are an affirmation to life (specifically life with Bloom), which Stephen, in Ithaca, has rejected (since he rejected Bloom and Bloom's offer).