Ashplant
Stephen’s “ashplant,” his walking stick made out of an ash sapling, symbolizes his divinity because it represents his connections to both the natural and supernatural worlds. It connects him to the earth because it’s…
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Plumtree’s Potted Meat
Plumtree’s Potted Meat represents Bloom’s frustration with his failures in his home, job, and marriage. It’s also a prime example of Joyce’s masterful wordplay. In Joyce’s Dublin, “potting meat” was slang for having sex…
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Jingling
Jingling represents sex—specifically Blazes Boylan’s affair with Molly Bloom. It also illustrates how Joyce connects music and sound to thought and memory. The jingling sound appears in two main forms. First, the quoits…
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Keys
Keys represent the loss of home and the quest to recover it. At the beginning of the novel, Stephen Dedalus gives Buck Mulligan the key to his Martello tower and decides not to return. Meanwhile…
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