Sparknotes suggests that the wandering rocks in this episode appear as literary devices meant to "capsize" the reader. It's hard for me to pin down what exactly are the "rocks" and what is supposed to be the narrow route that I am supposed to navigate. Maybe the sharp shifts in perspective are the rocks and the small connections between these characters are supposed to form a safe path through the episode. On the other hand, the objects that reappear (hats, coins, the poster of Mary Kendare) are meant to distract us from the more relevant milestones in the development of Bloom and Stephen.
I for one was capsized by the thoughts of Stephen as he decided to leave his sister to her own devices. Capsized in so far as I had to get up and pace around until I wasn't as sad. The moment of recognition ("She is drowning. Agenbite. Save her") is a surprising return to the ecstatic revelations that pop up in Portrait of the Artist from a narrative that seems otherwise mundane. It pulls the veil off the "regularness" of the day, revealing the divine aspects of average folk that Joyce is so obsessed with in their naked beauty.
That passage also reminds us of the sharp divide between Stephen and Catholic values (and by an odd but valid extention, between Stephen and Bloom). The moral Christian law would demand that Stephen help his sister. But Stephen takes a consequentialist position. He cannot help his family very much and doing so would undermine all of his goals. He pushes Dilly's troubles back to where they've been this whole time - in the back of his mind. It looks like Joyce is going to do the same. As significant as this brother-sister element seems, I cannot help but presume that it will fade into the background of Stephen's story.
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I was also really effected, not just by Staphen's behaviour by the portrayal of the Dedalus family in general. Stephen at least thinks about what it means that his sister has bought a book on learning French, but he chooses to not let on that he understands how she looks up to him. He chooses to separate himself from the family. On the other hand Simon does not seem to wallow in the sadness of the familial situation, he gets angry instead. What they have in common is that they both walk away. Perhaps they both suffer from relations with women that share their blood. For Simon it is the shame of watching the family collapse without a mother figure and for Stephen it is his inability to do anything for others while he is still very much so the young conflicted boy we watched grow up and eventually leave for Paris in "Portrait."
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