Ireland on the World Stage

A Roman Triumphus - similar to the opening image

"After the Race" seems to take a large departure from the previous stories in that it is bluntly symbolic.  The story opens with victorious Continental technology and power parading through an Irish "channel of poverty and inaction" (44).  The son of an Irish nationalist attempts to socialize with Frenchmen, a Hungarian, a Briton, and even an American, and as Jaime said, despite being (what seems to be) the best Ireland has to offer, cannot truly be an equal among them.  He doesn't really have the money to freely throw about in card games, even though is father seems to be a successful businessman.   In some way, he is held back by is awareness of the labor that goes into the car, it makes him "too excited to be genuinely happy" (45).  The money that he invests is a mere "mite", yet is more than half of what he has ("the greater part of his substance"), and is only accepted by "favor of friendship" (47).

All of these limitations suggest that it would be prudent to not fix desire for Irish advancement on the outside world, partly for fear of waking the "torpid Routh" of English power (50).  This suggestion is continuous with the apparent moral of "Eveline".  Eveline could not understand the danger of trying to escape from Ireland through Frank.  Jimmy seems to be fully aware of his social disadvantage, and as far as I can tell there is not a danger parallel to Eveline's.  But Jimmy ultimately fails because he can't play cards well, and ends up in debt.  The moral of both stories, and a moral developing as we progress in the collection, is that Dublin and to an extent Ireland must be reformed from within.  Foreign powers and influences will only endanger or embarrass the Irish.

Then we have the final image - the wake-up call - that seems to make concrete the Joyce quote that Mr. Kennedy gave us at the beginning. Joyce wants to shine a light or expose the "offal" of Dublin and Ireland.  The final image shows Jimmy in a state of distress and debt, exposed to the new light.  He was comforted by "dark stupor that would cover up his folly" but he cannot actually hide (53).  There might even be some undercurrent of redemption in the new light.  Although it is something of a rude awakening, being exposed to the daybreak, it is still a new day beginning in the direction of progress, which is Jimmy's self awareness.