"A Little Cloud" connotatively expresses in itself an effeminacy and fragility that little Chandler's personality holds. The precision and care of his appearance is a reaction to needing to be in social order. This makes up for his ineffectuality by customizing what he can control. The common practices of clothing and manner are reachable endeavors for a man who does not have what he wants, nor is whom he likes. Chandler's inability to be the personification of men like Gallaher, an ideal archetype that Chandler has a need to feel in close and personal interaction with, becomes manifested in various forms that become evident to the reader through the story.
While he thinks on life while observing people in the park, which shows the invading melancholia that is little Chandler's most meticulous suit, the reader notices that he has not yet had the acquiring of wisdom that would allow him to make the distinction between his life, and life itself, and this philosophy is ruled by this perpetual melancholia, the only obvious remnants of a long and habitually stifled desire for passion. Chandler thinks of "fortune"" being useless to struggle against rather than misfortune, and Joyce gives this deliberate syntax to convey Chandlers limited awareness, by positioning the usually cherished thing that is fortune against struggle. Joyce does this subtlety, allowing the reader to gain unconsciously an idea of Chandlers perceptions, which are centered around himself. Joyce uses subtle sarcasm in noting this observation of fortune to be the culmination of his experiences, and one gets the logical impression that his life has been a largely unexamined one. The furthest his self examination has went, has been to the formation of an ideal that Chandler wishes to be, without him even realizing that neither is he this idea of an admirable person, nor does he know the real reasons why such a thing is so attractive.