Ellipsis...

Think about a punctuation mark as a figure of thought.

For example, when you are through with a thought you make a period.

A comma, when inserted like a momentary comment, shows what your thought has just done.  (In this case, it's just created a simile to make a point)

Parentheses (which Joyce has already used in paragraph 1) show thought jumping off one rail and onto another, then quickly back again.  So the boy tells us that his thoughts of "vacation time" are on a whole other level than his thoughts about the two candles that haven't yet appeared in the window.  (See?)  There is only that one set of parentheses in this story, perhaps because the boyish world contained within them is what the boy leaves behind him, whether or not he likes it.

Ellipsis :  Sometimes we are trying to think of something and we can't.  We say things like, "His name was John... John... John somethingorother."  We have temporarily forgotten.  This is a shape of thought, this not-remembering.  When we need to symbolize it in writing, we give it a name, ellipsis, and a symbol, three dots: ...

As a shape of thought, ellipsis always shows something else is going on.  Now on the merely realistic level, it could be that the brain is damaged--by an accident, perhaps.  But as we all know, sometimes it's as though we just can't remember, and we hope our brains aren't damaged!  We say, "I know his name as well as my own; it's just flown out of my head."  In cases like this it's as though the name actually has acquired some power to fly out of our reach.  A few minutes (or hours!) later you'll suddenly know the name again.   "Kennedy, John Kennedy.  How could I have forgotten that!"  (Note that exclamation mark is just as much a figure of thought as are the period, comma, and all the rest).  The point is that behind ellipsis is often a psychological cause.

It could be as simple as fear that you will forget and be embarrassed by it.  The fear gets coalesced with the name that's about to surface in your memory and, zap, it's gone for a while.  It could be a lot more  complicated.  The key to ellipsis is the mechanism causing the forgetfulness.  What is it that causes your forgetfullness?

Return to the story and click on the next blue arrow to see what Cabe has to say about Old Cotter's dottiness.