James Joyce endured a life in which his geography and culture impacted his writing. Born in Dublin, Joyce lived in poverty as a child. According to Funk and Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, he lived in the Roman Catholic faith as a child until he broke from the church in college (Joyce, James Augustine Aloysius). We can see how this has affected his writing, for Joyce uses facts about Roman Catholicism as a part of his character’s lives. This would make sense by virtue of this being the most common religion in Ireland and what he grew up with in 1882 (James Joyce). An example of this can be seen in his short story The Sisters. In the texts it states,”Sometimes he had amused himself by putting difficult questions to me, asking me what one should do in certain circumstances …show more content…
This quote from the collection of short stories The Dubliners, talks about a young boy’s relationship with an older man who has just passed away. In the story the old man was a retired priest and the boy had become very fond of him over time. This acquaintance displays how Joyce’s childhood religion affected his writing due to the fact that he intertwines the ideas of Christianity, or more specifically Roman Catholicism, into his stories. As a part of believing in this religion we can see another example of Joyce’s personal beliefs apparent in his writing. Part of being Roman Catholic, James was known to be homophobic and value his masculinity. This is shown throughout many of his short stories as well as his first pieces of poetry. For instance, in his story An Encounter, the story of a coming of age during the Irish Revolution is told. It is mentioned in the story how part of Irish nationalism is masculinity (Elias). We can see how this clearly shows Joyce’s views on the topic of homosexuality as he labels it with a negative connotation in his