Lestrygonians

The theme of insatiety and impotence recurs. There is butter and sugar everywhere, but nothing nourishing. The church serves as candy here just as it served as lotus or poppies, in the lotus-eaters. The priests are well fed on butter, but the Dedalus girl is starving. The people of the wasteland are still awaiting a messiah, Bloom, unmistakably. “Bloo…Me? No. / Blood of the Lamb,” (151).
Bloom is in a state of arrest, a fly in the bar window, and retreats from his role as messiah. The messiah will not be birthed. A woman has labored for days, and it will not come, just as the body is yet to be found in the water, and Bloom’s son was born dead. Jesus is on the wall, hanging, and has yet to rise (151). “Hamlet, I am thy father’s spirit / Doomed for a certain time to walk the earth,” (152). The resurrection has not occurred.
The people of Dublin are more ready to accept a false prophet then the seagulls are, who reject the crumbled throwaway that Bloom tries to pass as bread, or manna from heaven. He purchases them real bread, and they gobble it up. At least the gulls are fed. Throughout this chapter there are numerous references to consuming poisonous, inedible, or junk food, or things that are just not meant to be eaten, such as the rats in the porter, or swans.
Bloom wanders the streets, letting his mind meander as he slowly searches for a suitable eatery. Just as in the lotus-eaters, Bloom’s mind works hard to try to elude thoughts of Molly, which lead to thoughts of Boylan, who Bloom also tries to physically avoid. Women, again, are tempestuous, cruel creatures. Molly’s pins are all over the house, and he thinks to purchase her a pincushion for her birthday. She has pricked him relentlessly. He runs into an old love interest, Mrs. Breen, who is covered in pastry flakes and sugar. Once a sharp dresser, and a beauty, Breen is now unappealing and old, only a year older then Molly, reminding Bloom of the inescapable plight of time. Breen takes a pin out of her purse, but puts it back. Like Martha, her flower has no scent. He pin will not prick Bloom.
No women are appealing in this episode. Their breasts are tired and overworked, dried up grapes, insufficient for reproduction. The baby will not be birthed. The only appealing woman, as always, is Molly. It is apparent that Bloom’s hunger reaches far beyond that of the tummy. Memories of Molly’s satiable love finally reach Bloom’s mind in a beautifully written scene on page 176.
Ravished over her I lay, full lips full open, kissed her mouth. Yum. Softly she gave me in my mouth the seedcake warm and chewed. Mawkish pulp her mouth had mumbled sweet and sour with spittle. Joy: I ate it: joy.”
This thought ends with “Me. And me now.” Bloom ponders over rather common philosophical issues: the me in the past is different then the me of now. Also, previously in this episode, Bloom’s faithful cloud momentarily covers the sunlight, and he has a momentary bout of depression: just as people die they are supplanted by numerous other births. The world keeps spinning. Everything is meaningless. Its all gas and dust. Language is just a bunch of sounds. ‘No one is anything.’
He also, in his philosophical meanderings, considers the word, parallax, much like Molly’s metempsychosis. His mind cannot penetrate the word, but he is intrigued. The word seems fitting. Life is a stream that stretches along the curbstone, therefore, linear. Life is time. If we are physically above this line, we can see the past as well as the present and the future. Parallax is “the apparent displacement or the difference in apparent direction of an object as seen from two different points of view.” This could hearken back to Blooms view his different selves, and also the self of the future. The messiah has been crucified, but will he rise again?
After considering Molly, Bloom’s mind reverts to a beauty beyond the ‘ineluctable modality’, or the grasp of time. He seeks ambrosial feasts and the beauty of statues. Bloom has been reminded numerous times in this episode of his impotence, concerning Molly. He suitors are everywhere in this chapter, and Bloom compares himself to them. When the blind man refers to Bloom as a man, Bloom thinks, it must be my voice, which reminds us of Molly’s suitor, the ‘barreltone’ baritone. Bloom is starving, but someone at the restaurant mentions that Molly is well fed. Bloom cannot avoid Boylan, and, in fact, sees him from a slight distance, and tries to evade his glance. His heart beats like a bird's as he retreats, like Ulysses, fumbling for his soap.