Essay/Term paper: An analysis of why jimmy doyle will never succeed in life due to his father

Essay, term paper, research paper:  James Joyce

An Analysis of Why Jimmy Doyle Will Never Succeed in Life Due to His Father


In "After The Race", by James Joyce in the book "Dubliners", the main
character, Jimmy Doyle will be an unproductive citizen, fooling around with his
friends and living off of his father's money for the rest of his life. In this
short story he demonstrated that he doesn't realize the value of money, because
he has never had to work for it, hence he is too frivolous with it at times.
Jimmy also likes to be with his friends and to not work hard at what he does.
Jimmy has no work ethic because his father had a lot of money, in fact he is
referred to as a "merchant prince" in Dublin due to his success as a butcher,
and his father did not want Jimmy to work for what he has, but would rather see
his son become popular and make a lot of connections. Jimmy's father is the
reason he will never succeed in life on his own.
Jimmy Doyle grew in a family that was quite well off financially due to
the hard work of his father. Mr. Doyle made a lot of money through hard work
and sacrifice as butcher, and he wanted nothing but the best for his son. He
did not want his son to work as hard as he did growing up. When Jimmy went away
to college, he spent more time socializing than he did studying. "Jimmy did not
study very earnestly and took to bad courses for awhile. He had money and he
was popular; ..."(p.25). Jimmy liked better to be in the company of peers
rather than study, and his father condoned it. When Jimmy was not doing well at
Dublin University, his father let him go off to Cambridge where he could "see
life a little". While there he seemed to run the bills a little high, and his
father took care of all the expenses because he wanted to show off the money
that he had acquired. The way Jimmy's dad just gave him money and only wanted
Jimmy to meet people who were "worth knowing" corrupted Jimmy's work ethic and
his behavior in the book clearly demonstrates this.
Jimmy Doyle has no work ethic and is just happy to be with his friends
accomplishing nothing. Jimmy loves having acquaintances and meeting people. He
was very proud coming through his home town after the big race and being seen in
the car with such people that he was with; Charles, an heir to a hotel empire
and soon-to-be business owner, Charles' cousin Andre who was going to run
Charles's new business, and a talented Hungarian piano player. His father was
happy to see his son in such a happy state and was quite proud of the fact that
his son was to have dinner in such company as he was. After dinner, the guys
went out to drink and play cards. Although Jimmy was losing and was actually
having someone else take care of writing out I-O-U's for him, he continued to
play, just so that he could stay in the company that he was in. At the end of
the night (actually dawn of the next day), Jimmy found himself sitting alone and
terribly in debt, yet it seemed as though it did not matter to him for he knew
that his father would take of him financially.
The support given to Jimmy by his father is detrimental to success of
Jimmy because Jimmy has become to reliant upon him. Although Jimmy's father
only wants the best for his son, he is actually doing a disservice to his son by
paying up all of his bills, not pushing him to finish college, only wanting him
to make friends in high places and generally show people that he can do all that
because he has money. Essentially Jimmy's dad is spoiling him and because of it
Jimmy will never succeed on his on.