“From time to time I see publishers’ lists in announcements of books on Irish subjects, so that I think people will be people might be willing to pay for the special odour of corruption which, I hope, floats over my stories”

-James Joyce

“Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, then fade and wither dismally with age” -Gabriel

“The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward”

James Joyce chooses to critique his homeland as a place that will never change. In the end, Gabriel chooses leaving his homeland to demonstrate Joyce’s loss of hope for Ireland.