Michael Furey

A child buries his head into his pillow to shelter himself from the hollering of his parents. A crash and the vivid screams of his mother quickly fade out the front door. The deep billowing sobs of his father punch into the boy's room. Somewhere, the door reopens and the fight starts again. The police will be here soon.

The two James Joyce stories from Dubliners offer glimpses into a new side of Epiphany. With the introduction of new perspective comes change. With all change comes a time of great uncertainty and discomfort. Epiphany is the recognition of change it seems in Joyce. This is an interior perspective: less divination, more inclination. Subtle glances breech insecurities and realizations are revealed.

Standing outside of a gym, the child waits for his father's SUV. He sits and waits, watching as the cars passing on the road in front of him turn on their headlights with the fading day. After a few hours, his mother shows up to pick him up.

A name holds power to Joyce. In a way, it holds all the power. 'Araby' signifies all things great, Michael Furey is the name which melts the fantasies of an effete mind. The epiphany is the melding of word and reality. The word, once supporter of the delusions that propelled the character, becomes like a hammer through a stained glass. Behind the falling glass is all the badness and inner fears realized. There's some good there too. The viewers in these stories are shown their true nature through this manner of revelation. An identical tool for both construction and destruction.

The family is at a picnic. The father eats a second hotdog with his fourth beer. The mother glares at him with disdain. She quickly hides it under a mask of smile. The boy notices it though. And for a moment, he is filled with terror.

The manners of people in The Dead are words spoken for pacifying effect. The protagonist exposes his own furious lusts little-by-little until he comes upon his figure of control, Gretta. She diffuses him with story, redefining for him what love means. She is a divine creature. A single shot Scheherazade. Gabriel, ironically named, heralds the snow with his new friend, Michael Furey. What is that thing that is said in Zombie movies? 'When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth'? I think they got it wrong, or, at least the timing part of it.

The boy, now a student, tries to reflect on his experiences in the context of the class material. He tries all sorts of renderings where one thing from his story is related to a later part in a different one. He fails and it comes out jarring and misleading. Not cartoony though. That's something. He gives up and turns off the computer. Misery and epiphany, word.