Finnegans Wake

Shaun takes on his role as the postman, known as the Post. A “poor ass” (405) belonging to the four judges describes how he thinks he saw the Post as he fell asleep. The thought awakens Shaun, who begins to float down the Liffey in a beer barrel. He defends himself as “a mere mailman of peace” (408) and answers questions about ALP’s letter “with a voice pure as a churchmode” (409) but suspects that the people questioning him are trying to stop him from delivering his mother’s letter. However, he does criticize the letter’s writer (Shem).

As an answer to one question, he explores a retelling of a fable by Aesop named The Ant and the Grasshopper, in which he plays the role of the ant (or the “Ondt” (414)). He works hard to save up enough food to get him through winter, unlike his rival, the grasshopper (the “Gracehopper” (414)). In this version, the grasshopper is Shaun’s artistic brother, Shem. Rather than gathering food, Shem plays his fiddle for a group of females. When the winter comes, the grasshopper has no food. He is poor and hungry, while the ant has more than enough food for himself.