Faubourg Saint Patrice - ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

Joyce related to Budgen: "Stephen no longer interests me. He has a shape that can't be
changed" (107). A product of his culture, Stephen cannot extinguish those powers
which had formed him; in short, he is unable to "fly by those nets" (A Portrait 177).
And, as Stephen departs Bloom's house, the poet-priest and "fearful jesuit" resumes his
quest for spiritual fulfillment, still emanating those same forces which he struggles
against.
Likewise, as Bloom's day concludes, he reflects on the events which transpired.
In the "catechistic" technique of "Ithaca," the narrator asks: "What satisfied Bloom? To
have brought a positive gain to others. Light to the gentiles" (17.352-3). Theresponse
to the narrator's question is paraphrased from Isaiah 49:6, which reads in full: "It is too
little, he says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the
survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, thatmy salvation may reach to
the end of the earth." This passage is alternately interpreted as God's dictate for the
Jewish people to serve as His exemplars, or one of four "Servant of the Lord" oracles
which prophecies the Messiah30. Despite Bloom's professed atheism, he serves both
these scriptural roles, and his compassion and humanity appear to emanate from a
nostalgic clinging to orthodox morality, perhaps embodying Joyce's quest for a new
moral but secular conscience for Ireland. From Bloom's initial kindness to his cat in
"Calypso," to his compassionate but pragmatic perspective on death and suffering in
"Hades," to his aiding the blind piano-tuner crossing the street in "Lestrigonians," to his
vocal defense of the oppressed in his confrontation with the citizen, to his sympathy for
the child-bearing pains of Mrs. Purefoy, and concluding with his assistance to the drunk
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