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Part 3 —
Lestrygonians: Humanism and Hunger
Hugh Kenner documents a conversation between Joyce and Frank Budgen in which Joyce describes Bloom as “A complete man, a good man” (Kenner 1987, 5). Yet much of the critical literature on Ulysses focuses on how Bloom is incomplete, the fact that he is searching for son, that he is in a sexless marriage, and that he is an outsider. How can such a deeply flawed character be considered “complete” by Joyce? I contend that Bloom contains the “big word” within him on a subconscious level, a wholehearted, naive, almost automatic concern for others. This concern extends even beyond species, demonstrated by his sympathy for the seagulls in “Lestrygonians” (8.73). For Bloom, all beings deserve love and recognition, which corresponds well with his conception in “Cyclops” that a nation is simply “the same people living in the same place” (12.272).
This is where the dichotomy of incomplete and complete becomes crucial. Where does this habitual, almost machine-like humanism come from? In my reading, it is because Bloom is flawed, broken, and has something missing inside of him that he hungers constantly for the world around him. As Schwarz notes, the power of hunger dominates Bloom with peristaltic regularity such that the language of his stream of consciousness is transformed (Schwarz 1987, 130). Naturally, Bloom’s bodily needs influences the style and content of his memories, and even his ability to remember at all.
