Book Review of “The Dead” by James Joyce

   Recently, I have read the book “The Dead” by James Joyce. This book is a continuation of a the series “Dubliners” this realistic fiction short story is the last of the series and it is, in my opinion, the best one of them all. This short story shows internal conflict and external conflict. The main characters are: Gabriel Conroy (He is the protagonist in the story),  Gretta Conroy (Gabriel's wife), Lily (Housemaid of the Morkan Sisters), Moly Ivors (Teases Gabriel in a dance), Julia and Kate Morkan (They throw a big dance party every year), and Michael Furey (Gretta's ex-husband who died for her). As ll these characters play an important role in the plot of this short story.
   The external conflicts would occur more often than internal conflicts. The book first stumbled upon its first conflict when Gabriel was talking to the Lily. He called her out because she had a boyfriend and he made it awkward. He was confused about what had happened wondering what he did wrong. The second instance of conflict was when Gabriel was on the dance floor with Moly Ivors. Moly Ivors invited him to visit his hometown stating that multiple of there acquaintance would be going and that i would be fun but Gabriel nervously denied this offer and would state that he travels with a couple of his personal friends. She would then precede to pick on him for not wanting to visit his hometown and she would later state that she was only joking. The last major conflict was when Gretta would act differently towards Gabriel towards the end of the story. Gabriel would later find out that Gretta still has feelings for her ex-husband who died waiting out in the cold for her. Astonished by this information Gabriel starts questioning his own mortality and wether or not the love in his relationship is true or not.
    What I liked about this short story is that it puts you in the mind of Gabriel say for instance you were in Gabriel's shoes a lot of people would react a lot different than the way he reacted to a lot of situations. What I disliked about this story was the scene were Miss Ivors would call Gabriel out for no reason in front of a crowd of people but Gabriel handled it well. I also disliked that the ending was so abrupt we never go to know what happened after he questioned his mortality at the end.
    If you want to read something quick and get good entertainment out of it as well I suggest reading  this book it hits all tje the points of a quality story other than the fact that it ended so abrupt. I also read the summaries of the other short stories in the Dubliners I would also suggest reading them as well they compliment each other very well.