Finally, Joyce’s line hints at responsibility. If one resolved decision can redirect a life, then indecision also has consequences, because drift is itself a direction. Existentialist writers such as Jean-Paul Sartre’s Being and Nothingness (1943) argue that we are defined by our choices; Joyce similarly suggests that the self is authored through decisive acts.
Yet the quote is not merely stern—it can be hopeful. If an arc can be redirected, then a person is not trapped by inertia. A single clear decision, taken seriously and carried forward, can become the start of a different story. [...]
