Ulysses

Bloom and Stephen both feel alienated from their society but this manifests in different ways. They feel disconnected from their city and search constantly for a place where they feel at home. Bloom’s alienation is thrust upon him. He is exiled to the periphery of the society for several reasons, the most explicit of which is because he is Jewish. Bloom has been baptized “three times” (635) and is Irish in citizenry, birthplace, and upbringing, but this does not matter to most people. They view him as external, as different from them because he was not raised as a Roman Catholic. Bloom is not Jewish in any meaningful sense; his mother was a Christian, meaning that the matrilineal inheritance of Jewish identity is denied to Bloom, while he does not observe Jewish religious practices nor seemingly believe in any form of God. Despite being baptized, he does not take communion in church, nor does he feel welcome in the congregation. Bloom’s Jewish identity is constructed in the minds of others. They perceive him to be Jewish, so he cannot escape this. Instead, Bloom internalizes his Jewishness. He becomes the Jewish man that people believe him to be, shouting at the citizen that “Christ was a jew like me” (327).