A Portrait of the Ondt as a Young Man

Abstract

Abstract In the tale of the Ondt and the Gracehoper in book three, Shaun and Shem appear as characters inspired by Aesop’s “The Grasshopper and the Ants.” Joyce’s reworking of that fable offers a unique insight into his view of philosophy because it contains more philosophical allusions than any other section of the Wake. Those allusions point to a wide range of philosophers, including Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Confucius, and Plato. This chapter demonstrates that Joyce aligns the philosophers of his youth with the Shaunish Ondt and those of his maturity with the Shemish Gracehoper. Since Shaun and Shem primarily function as opposites, these alignments show that, as Joyce’s conception of philosophy developed, he came to embrace thinkers who challenged his original positions. This idea is significant because it allows a means of understanding the larger trajectory of Joyce’s relationship to philosophy.