Faubourg Saint Patrice - ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

that unlike Stephen, Bloom was not raised in a "Panopticon" of Judaism. The image of
his son reflects more a paternal and ethnic connection between Bloom and Rudy than an
internalization of orthodox religion (Davison, James Joyce 228-9).
Departing the nightmarish horrors of Nighttown, Bloom and Stephen--the united
Odysseus and Telemachusfind refuge at the cabmans' shelter, just as their epic
counterparts met together at Eumaeus's but in Homer's Odyssey. In "Eumaeus,"
"Bloom's common sense joins Stephen's acute intelligence; Stephen Dedalus, the Greek­
Christian-Irishman, joins Bloom Ulysses, the Greek-Jewish-Irishman; the cultures seem
to unite against horsepower and brutality in favor of brainpower and decency" (El lmann,
James Joyce 372). Indeed, though they are both "keyless"25Stephen having given his
key to Martello tower to Mulligan, Bloom having left his in another pair of trousers-
together they serve as the antithesis of what Joyce perceived was wrong with his culture.
Stephen's keen intelligence is set against the myopia of other Dubliners; Bloom's
humanity and inquisitiveness against their hypocrisy and blind faith.
Their union, however, also reveals their differences. Bloom's optimistic
freethought confronts Stephen's jaded scholasticism. While Bloom perceives Stephen as
a "good catholic" and "orthodox," in spite of Stephen's blasphemous remarks while in
Nighttown (16.748), Stephen, at first, views Bloom with a guarded indifference --as the
Other. Moreover, when questioned by Bloom about the existence of a supernatural
God, Stephen responds with his characteristic sarcasm: "0 that. . .has been proved
conclusively by several of the bestknown passages in Holy Writ, apart from
circumstantial evidence" (16.772-3). Failing to note Stephen's irony, Bloom responds:
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