There is no doubt that one of the major themes of “The Sisters” is “paralysis.” In fact, many critics have tried to identify this same theme of the story from many perspectives; however, it seems very difficult or almost impossible for readers to understand the reality of paralysis naturally both at the level of the boy’s consciousness and within the context of the whole story. Therefore, I suggest that it is a more reasonable way to understand the theme of paralysis in the story by investigating it in the protagonist’s “unconsciousness” and its overt expression or “conscientization” in “The Sisters.” In the first paragraph of the story, even though he is unaware of the word itself and its meaning consciously, “I [the boy] said softly to myself [himself] the word paralysis.” In the context of the story, there is no way to explain his murmuring the word paralysis to himself from the perspective of his consciousness. From an unconscious point of view, however, it could be argued that his actions make perfect sense. Throughout Irish history, the Catholic Church was commonly both morally and spiritually corrupt and paralysed. Under these circumstances, the boy’s unconsciousness about the paralysis of the Irish priests and Irish Catholic Church was formed during his childhood by hearing stories about the paralysis repeatedly from family members and neighbours. Later, this unconscious idea emerged into the sphere of his consciousness through association with the word paralysis, and, furthermore, due to the influences of his external environments, specifically, Father Flynn’s physical paralysis. His conscientized unconsciousness becomes concrete as he is exposed to both the priest’s death and the confused discourse among the adults. This aspect of conscientization of unconsciousness reveals itself again in his dream and through his unconscious expression of emotion about the priest’s paralysis in the street. The paralysis of the Irish Catholic Church was exceedingly serious and has been repeated throughout Irish history to the extent that it dominated children’s collective unconsciousness. Joyce used the conscientization of the boy’s unconsciousness as a device to express the seriousness of this paralysis of the Irish priests and Irish Catholic Church of his day.