Dubliners By James Joyce) Essay, Research Paper
“An analysis of why Jimmy Doyle will never succeed in life due to his father”
In “After The Race”, by James Joyce in the book “Dubliners”, the main character,
Jimmy Doyle will be an unproductive citizen, fooling around with his friends and living
off of his father’s money for the rest of his life. In this short story he demonstrated that
he doesn’t realize the value of money, because he has never had to work for it, hence he is
too frivolous with it at times. Jimmy also likes to be with his friends and to not work
hard at what he does. Jimmy has no work ethic because his father had a lot of money, in
fact he is referred to as a “merchant prince” in Dublin due to his success as a butcher, and
his father did not want Jimmy to work for what he has, but would rather see his son
become popular and make a lot of connections. Jimmy’s father is the reason he will
never succeed in life on his own.
Jimmy Doyle grew in a family that was quite well off financially due to the hard
work of his father. Mr. Doyle made a lot of money through hard work and sacrifice as
butcher, and he wanted nothing but the best for his son. He did not want his son to work
as hard as he did growing up. When Jimmy went away to college, he spent more time
socializing than he did studying. “Jimmy did not study very earnestly and took to bad
courses for awhile. He had money and he was popular; …”(p.25). Jimmy liked better to
be in the company of peers rather than study, and his father condoned it. When Jimmy
was not doing well at Dublin University, his father let him go off to Cambridge where he
could “see life a little”. While there he seemed to run the bills a little high, and his father
took care of all the expenses because he wanted to show off the money that he had
acquired. The way Jimmy’s dad just gave him money and only wanted Jimmy to meet
people who were “worth knowing” corrupted Jimmy’s work ethic and his behavior in the
book clearly demonstrates this.
Jimmy Doyle has no work ethic and is just happy to be with his friends
accomplishing nothing. Jimmy loves having acquaintances and meeting people. He was
very proud coming through his home town after the big race and being seen in the car
with such people that he was with; Charles, an heir to a hotel empire and soon-to-be
business owner, Charles’ cousin Andre who was going to run Charles’s new business, and
a talented Hungarian piano player. His father was happy to see his son in such a happy
state and was quite proud of the fact that his son was to have dinner in such company as
he was. After dinner, the guys went out to drink and play cards. Although Jimmy was
losing and was actually having someone else take care of writing out I-O-U’s for him, he
continued to play, just so that he could stay in the company that he was in. At the end of
the night (actually dawn of the next day), Jimmy found himself sitting alone and terribly
in debt, yet it seemed as though it did not matter to him for he knew that his father would
take of him financially.
The support given to Jimmy by his father is detrimental to success of Jimmy
because Jimmy has become to reliant upon him. Although Jimmy’s father only wants the
best for his son, he is actually doing a disservice to his son by paying up all of his bills,
not pushing him to finish college, only wanting him to make friends in high places and
generally show people that he can do all that because he has money. Essentially Jimmy’s
dad is spoiling him and because of it Jimmy will never succeed on his on.