Short story about people living in pods by James Joyce?

In "The Dead" by James Joyce, a group of people gather for a holiday party in Dublin. The guests live in a kind of self-contained "pod" of their own perspectives and memories, disengaged from one another. The main character, Gabriel Conroy, is forced to confront the limitations of his own pod-like existence when he realizes the depth of his disconnection from his wife and his own identity. Ultimately, the story explores themes of alienation, isolation, and the search for meaning in a world where individual pods of experience rarely intersect.