“Ivy Day in the Committee Room” is a Modernist short story. Modernist literature emerged in the early 20th century as writers sought to tell stories that captured the alienation and disillusionment of industrialized modern life. Modernist fiction usually featured deeply discontented characters trying to survive violent forces (such as war, inequality, and, in the case of Joyce’s characters, British imperialism).
This sort of disaffected cynicism comes across in the characters in “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”—most of them are canvassers for a political party whose principles they consistently contradict. For example, Henchy convinces people to vote for Nationalist Party candidate Tierney by lying to them about Tierney’s political affiliation (saying he is unaligned with a particular party) instead of inspiring them with visions of an independent Ireland. What’s more, he feels no shame about doing so—getting the job done is more important to him than any moral or political commitments.
The ways in which Joyce depicts the reality of the nationalist movement (rather than romanticizing it as a form of propaganda) also makes “Ivy Day in the Committee Room” a realist piece of literature. Despite the fact that Joyce was a nationalist who believed in freedom for the Irish people, he was not interested in writing stories that glossed over the challenges facing the Nationalist Party. The realism in this story comes across in the ways that the men in the story bicker and gossip with each other rather than performing the canvassing jobs that they are paid to do.
