After the Race

by

James Joyce

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André Rivière Character Analysis

André Rivière is Charles Ségouin’s Canadian cousin and is the story’s representative for Canada, although he is connected in a tangential manner to France: he is Ségouin’s cousin; he intends to become manager of Ségouin’s proposed motor car business in Paris; he speaks French; and he is proud of France’s success in the race. Through the extension of Rivière’s cultural identity Joyce implies two things. First, Rivière, like Jimmy Doyle, is interested in associating himself with more powerful countries. Second, with Rivière showing a kind of cultural and financial compliance to the French, Joyce communicates the idea that a socioeconomic hierarchy exists between countries, and that the colonizing countries (England and France), by exploiting others, are at the top. Canada had, at one point, been colonized by the French. But Rivière is himself also French (he is directly related to Ségouin) which means that he is not one of the groups of people who were colonized by the French. Rather, he is more closely linked to the colonizers than the colonized. In this way, he and Jimmy are different, as Jimmy is an Irishman whose family is Irish. Through these subtleties, Joyce demonstrates the sliding scale of power amassed through colonization. While the country that colonizes others typically holds the most wealth and cultural control, the people who hail from that country and who settle in the colonized areas inherit some of that power as well, even if it is diluted. Meanwhile, those who are colonized, Joyce demonstrates, experience the worst and most brutal effects of colonization. In the final scene, Joyce illustrates this ladder of power by having Rivière lose to Ségouin in the card game, but still place above Jimmy.

André Rivière Quotes in After the Race

The After the Race quotes below are all either spoken by André Rivière or refer to André Rivière. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Ireland at the Beginning of the 20th Century Theme Icon
).
After the Race Quotes

Jimmy, whose imagination was kindling, conceived the lively youth of the Frenchmen twined elegantly upon the firm framework of the Englishman’s manner. A graceful image of his, he thought, and a just one.

Related Characters: Jimmy Doyle, Charles Ségouin, Routh, André Rivière
Page Number: 39
Explanation and Analysis:

Play ran very high and paper began to pass. Jimmy did not know exactly who was winning but he knew that he was losing. But it was his own fault for he frequently mistook his cards and the other men had to calculate his I.O.U.’s for him. They were devils of fellows but he wished they would stop: it was getting late.

Related Characters: Jimmy Doyle, Charles Ségouin, Routh, André Rivière, Farley
Related Symbols: The Card Game
Page Number: 41
Explanation and Analysis:
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After the Race PDF

André Rivière Quotes in After the Race

The After the Race quotes below are all either spoken by André Rivière or refer to André Rivière. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Ireland at the Beginning of the 20th Century Theme Icon
).
After the Race Quotes

Jimmy, whose imagination was kindling, conceived the lively youth of the Frenchmen twined elegantly upon the firm framework of the Englishman’s manner. A graceful image of his, he thought, and a just one.

Related Characters: Jimmy Doyle, Charles Ségouin, Routh, André Rivière
Page Number: 39
Explanation and Analysis:

Play ran very high and paper began to pass. Jimmy did not know exactly who was winning but he knew that he was losing. But it was his own fault for he frequently mistook his cards and the other men had to calculate his I.O.U.’s for him. They were devils of fellows but he wished they would stop: it was getting late.

Related Characters: Jimmy Doyle, Charles Ségouin, Routh, André Rivière, Farley
Related Symbols: The Card Game
Page Number: 41
Explanation and Analysis: