When I saw a small collection of Joyce’s books on
the Must Read List, I’d intended to put them off as long as I could. However, my library has a few shelves of
“honor” books; you can just take them and return them whenever you want. This is important, especially when I’m unsure
how high a priority it is to me to finish a certain book. I saw A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and the first thing I noticed was
that it was short. Less than 200 pages
short. I decided I liked this book
already just based on size. It looked
like something by James Joyce that I could finish.
What was more surprising was how much I liked the
book. It has five chapters and each
chapter focuses on a different time in Stephen Dedalus’s life. Chapter 1 starts off irritating. The first
few pages are a bunch of unconnected incidents and thoughts, and the narrative
jumps around with little to no transition in between. I got over that, though, once I saw that this
was being told from a Stephen’s point-of-view as a young child until he’s sent
off to live at a Catholic school.
Chapter 2 is surrounded by the time when Stephen’s
family endures financial hardships. In
Chapter 3, Stephen is 16 and very concerned about his immortal soul. He’s been fornicating and living a
duplicitous life still attending his old school. He finally confesses and feels free. Chapter 4, he has an opportunity to join the
clergy and instead, he gives up religion entirely. Chapter 5, he’s at a university and in one
day, has many conversations with various college mates and decides that the
best thing to do is leave the country and pursue his art.
In summary, this is the story of a young man who
decides that the best way to live is to be free of attachments to any religious
or national organization, because any relationship with them betrays his true
self and mars his sense of beauty.
I disagree with this philosophy entirely, and I find
it damaging not only to society but I’ve yet to see it benefit the individual
as well. Stephen, by the end, in his
mind has lofty ideas and seems inspired by truth, but in practice, he is little
more than a lazy, lecherous, selfish blowhard who is unapologetically shirking
his responsibilities. I hate being
around people like this. How did I enjoy
this book?
It was Chapter 1 that cinched the deal. Yes, it had a frustrating start, but by the
end, I came to love this little boy.
Joyce created some very moving scenes that captured the helplessness
children have among the adults. He has
to endure a horrible Christmas dinner because the grownups don’t have the
decency to be civil one day out of the year. And then there’s the punishment sequence; his
glasses break and he orders home for a new one so he is excused from his
schoolwork. But when a prefect hears
that he’s not doing schoolwork, the prefect will hear no excuses but instead
hits Stephen in front of the whole class for being lazy.
These scenes were so moving and brought so much
depth to a character who would otherwise have seemed pathetic to me. The events of childhood have a great
determining factor in how we act and behave in adulthood, and while I may not
approve of his actions later in the story, I found them to be very
understandable.
There is a fair bit of navel gazing, especially
towards the end of the book. It might be
my age now as opposed to when I read Ulysses,
or perhaps Portrait is simply a
clearer tale, but I was able to handle the navel gazing. I even enjoyed some of the conversations and
thoughts that Stephen has over the course of the tale.
I am going to recommend this book, but with a severe
caution: it is not easy reading. Joyce
is loquacious and fairly didactic as well.
The man was educated and it’s clear that he liked to show off. This comes through in the narrative so if you
go into it, be prepared.
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