In class discussions of Stephen's growth, his desires in the middle of the book to be unique and distinct from his peers came up a lot. Stephen had to feel unique in order to develop his identity.
Throughout the early parts of the novel, religion really defines all of Stephen's actions. He always tries to get in all of the prayers and tries to be a model child. The environment really forces him into that pattern of following the religious norms. Religion really ends up sorta screwing up his mind, in my opinion, since it made him feel as though normal stages of development were unusual and something to be ashamed of. None of the other kids around him would share their feelings with him as a result of this as well. Or, maybe they did, but it seemed like in the middle of the book Stephen didn't really have that many close friends because he was too obsessed with brooding and being different.
I find myself cringing at a lot of the things Stephen does in the book, like anyone would looking back on themselves when they were younger. The way he treats his family with such disdain, or ignores his friends, or fails to approach numerous women that aren't prostitutes. Even the part in chapter 5 where Stephen tries to show Cranly how anti-religion and faithless he is, especially since the readers know how big of an impact it had on him. It was probably Joyce's intention to make the readers uncomfortable with some passages, but I liked the cringe-inducing moments because it made me feel better about some of the awfully embarrassing things that I've done in my life too, sort of a "oh other people have had the same experience" moment. Reading a book about the inner mind of another child developing would be great for Stephen.
Ultimately I think he finally found himself at the end of Chapter 4, and as evidenced by all the talking he does in the early parts of Chapter 5 he finally feels comfortable enough with his identity to engage in social interactions. I'm almost jealous of Stephen that his calling to art is so clear-cut and that he at least knows what he's doing with his life right away. I think for me and many other people my age, it's probably not so easy to just know what you're going to do in a moment of clarity. There are so many other factors preventing people nowadays from just saying to themselves: "I want to be an artist" and doing only that with their lives. Or, maybe it's easy and I'm just narrow minded, I'll never know.
I agree that Stephen's (relative) talkativeness throughout chapter 5 reflects something of his increased confidence in the role or "vocation" he's assumed for himself. Although note how often, in crowds, he remains silent--we get pages on end of his friends goofing on each other and debating all kinds of issues, and Stephen doesn't say a word. He also tries to avoid any overt conflict with MacCann, the student with the petition for universal peace. He depicts himself as in the process of working out his ideas about aesthetics, using Aristotle as his guide. He's not yet an artist--or even an art theorist. But he has some ideas that he's starting to feel increasingly confident about.
ReplyDeleteI agree that reading about Stephen's cringeworthy moments made me feel a little better about my own. I didn't really identify with a lot of his behavior -- I think my desire to fit in and be part of things has always been stronger than my desire to sit on the outside and just watch people -- but seeing him struggle helped me identify with him and feel more empathetic towards him at times that I might have otherwise been very irritated by him.
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