James Joyce is notoriously difficult to teach. He is a creator of stlye not plot. This assignment will inspire my students to wade through the heavy language and imagery of Dubliners.
Dubliners is a collection of short stories that act as snapshots of the city. There are four distinct sections: childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life. In each section, Joyce explores the theme of paralysis through duty, loss of innocence, marriage, politics, and death. As a final assessment, students will create a digital interpretation of one of the stories. They will need to address:
- Point of View
- Major/minor characters
- Central conflict
- Setting
- Major images, symbols, and figures of speech
- Importance of title
- Themes
- Moment of epiphany
- Soundtrack
I created the story map above outlining the story "Eveline," which is an exploration of the struggle between duty to self and duty to family.
