Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man tells the story of Stephen Dedalus as he grows from an introspective and conscious young man into a rebellious and disaffected adult. For much of the novel, young Stephen is trying to figure out exactly who he is and what it is that he values in life. It is a stream-of-consciousness story wherein the internal thoughts and feeling, no matter how insignificant they may seem are written in their entirety so as to represent in a fictional work how a real human being's thought processes guide their life. As an Irish youth, it is expected that Stephen will follow the orders of his parents and honor his father and mother, and that he will live and behave according to the Catholic tradition of his family members and his community. Religion and...
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