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But do you know what a nation means? says John Wyse.
Yes, says Bloom.
What is it? says John Wyse.
A nation? says Bloom. A nation is the same people living in the same place. (272)
Readers of Ulysses are accustomed to a distanced, omniscient narrator who freely dips in and out of its characters’ inner lives. In the novel’s second half, the narrative becomes increasingly aware of itself and the limited range of traditional storytelling. As a result we get the slurry of unstable signifiers and linguistic re-orientations in chapters like “Wandering Rocks” and “Sirens” as Joyce plays with time and space.
We must learn to read Ulysses as a book about narrative rather than a book that simply contains one. This is why we’re so shocked when we stumble upon the first word of “Cyclops” and we are slapped in the face with the personified “I”.
I was just passing the time of day with old Troy of the D.M.P. at the corner of Arbour hill there and be damned but a bloody sweep came along and he near drove his gear into my eye. (240)
In “Cyclops” this personified narrator guides us through an afternoon hour at the pub. He has a heavy Dublin way of speaking, he collects debts and complains when Bloom doesn’t pay for drinks yet…
