Spiritual Poverty Exposed in The Dubliners Joyce describes the spiritual poverty of the people of Dublin in the industrial age, with powerful images of mechanized humans and animated machines. In “After the Race” and “Counterparts” he outlines characters with apt portrayals of human automation. Machines take over human attributes and vitality in opposition to the vacuous citizens of the Irish capitalist city. Joyce's use of metaphorical language brings to life the desperation of his country. In Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson writes an allegorical account of the failure of humanity (1919). Although Anderson describes rural life in the "New World", his understanding of human nature and descriptive terminology provide a valuable framework for examining Joyce's interpretation of urban misery in the "Old World". “The Book of the Grotesque,” ​​the opening piece of Anderson's collection of short stories, animates the thoughts of a dying old man: it was his idea that the moment one of the people took one of the truths for himself, he called it his truth, and tried to live his life by it, he became a grotesque and the truth he embraced became a lie. (24, Penguin Edition). This notion, that belief in a single truth or paradigm distorts people to the point that they are deformed and can no longer function as humans, is central to Joyce's characterization of Dubliners. 20th century Homo sapiens can be distinguished from machines by their ability to think openly and consider myriad ideas without being paralyzed by a single absolute. When people grasp an idea and turn it into an ideal, the separation between man and machine becomes blurred. Human automatons mechanically follow the programming of their truth. In "A...... middle of paper...... he asks him to find an outlet for his frustration, and beats his son to quench an alcoholic's strange thirst for violence. When an individual grasps a single idea or paradigm, he loses his humanity and takes the form of a grotesque machine. Joyce's characterizations of mechanical people and animated machines in The Dubliners follow this philosophy presented by Sherwood Anderson and reinforce its applicability. Dubliners are anesthetized by their truths and they experience a paralysis of their human possibilities. Only a boring mechanism remains which is therefore capable of great inhumanity as it follows the writing of its truth. Alcoholics can beat children, capitalists can devastate countries can fight wars (religious or profane). to exterminate other ethnic groups. Works cited: Joyce, James Dubliners, New York: Penguin, 1993.