"Wandering Rocks"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the "Wandering Rocks" chapter of Joyce's "Ulysses" presents the reader with a unique perspective of the movement of its characters through time and space, fracturing and recombining not only linear action but also significant ideas of the relationship between people, religion and governance in a summarizing and foreshadowing of the novel itself. It looks at how the section stands as a fractured narrative occurring roughly in the middle of the novel, composed of eighteen vignettes and a concluding "coda", corresponding to the structural framework of the novel itself.

From the Paper:

"The nineteen sections of "Wandering Rocks" are not arranged in a chronological order, forcing the reader to construct the narrative out of overlapping occurrences, like the overlapping links of a chain, reflecting the manner in which Ulysses itself must be pieced together by the reader from a variety of different perspectives. The primary reason for the overlapping narrative of this chapter is that the events and interactions all take place roughly simultaneously, forcing Joyce to fracture the reader's linear sense of narrative only to force the reformulation of a more complex and realistic sense of time. The introductory three chapters, the "Telemachiad", and the first few chapters of "Bloom's Section", both occur during the same time of day and the reader can easily imagine the action of these two different narratives unfolding simultaneously yet spatially apart. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Gilbert, Stuart. James Joyce's Ulysses: A Study. New York: Vintage Books, 1955.
• Joyce, James. Ulysses. New York: Random House, 1961.
• Thornton, Weldon. Allusions in Ulysses. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968.

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