A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man

Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece of James Joyce
Review: Though on a superficial level James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man may seem non-sensical, philosophical, and without purpose, upon careful examination, because of Joyce's stylistic skill, it deserves to top any book list.
The novel relates the growing of a small Irish boy, Stephen Dedalus, to a man amidst political, familial, religious, and moral controversy both internal and external. He develops from a subservient Catholic schoolboy into a university artist who rejects all imposed societal order, and equates truth with beauty.
The plot is great buoyed through Joyce's masterful use of symbolism and imagery. As implied in Stephen's name, many of the symbols find basis in the myth of Icarus and Daedalus. Stephen too is trapped within a labyrinth and so the theme of roads and walking runs the course of the novel. He wanders the streets to his first sexual encounter, wanders in indecision over confessing his actions or not, and wanders as he decides whether to continue with a pious life or lay it aside for the worship of beauty.
Stephen longs to be free of expectations and beliefs imposed upon him by family members, teachers, and friends. As he grows, his desire and hope for this freedom enlarge, and Joyce symbolizes this emotion with birds and flight, again drawing a parallel to the Greek myth. At the commencement of the novel, dark, horrible birds threaten to pluck Stephen's eyes, yet, as he recognizes beauty as his personal source of truth, perfection, and worship, the birds evolve into doves (2, 123). In his ultimate declaration of flight form the suffocating and confining world, Stephen declares, "His throat ached with desire to cry aloud, the cry of a hawk or eagle on high to cry piercingly of his deliverance to the winds. This was the call of life to his soul not the dull gross voice of the world of duties and despair. . .He would create proudly out of the freedom and power of his soul, as the great artificer whose name he bore, a living thing, new and soaring and beautiful. . ." (122). Even as he completely breaks the ties to his past at the end of the novel, Stephen notices and carefully describes the manner in which the birds fly and dart through the air (123).
Water imagery brings unity to the work, as the book begins with Stephen wetting the bed and being pushed into a slimy ditch (1,7). Later on, the reader finds the beautiful girl Stephen views stands in the midst of the water (123). Maybe such water could represent the conflict Stephen feels, for the water imagery is frequently coupled with description of opposing forces. Upon wetting the bed, Stephen focuses on the comparison of the feelings of hot and cold. With the cess pool, Stephen teeters between being himself and trying to fit in, as well as following his father's advice not to tell on classmates and a desire to tattle. In the case of the girl, his conflict lies between a path filled with worship of God or worship of beauty. Stephen even wades into the water at this time (122). His sexual encounter and sin are also given imagery of slime and floods as he wobbles over what is morally right and his course of action.
The conflict between the confining chains of religion and the freedom of impulse and beauty is central to the novel. Some of Joyce's greatest work comes from the mixing of these symbols, heightening the reader's understanding of Stephen's internal emotions. Many times, as Stephen views things of beauty of sensuality, he describes them in religious terms. Stephen approaches the house of the prostitute he tells "The yellow gasflames arose before his troubled vision against the vapoury sky, burning as if before an altar. Before the doors and in the lighted halls groups were gathered arrayed as for some rite" (70). He repeatedly describes Eileen as "Tower of Ivory. House of Gold" (28). On his way to the chapel to confess, Stephen encounters "frowsy girls" on the street and of them states ". . .if their souls were in a state of grace they were radiant to see: and God loved seeing them" (100). Even as Stephen wallows in indecision, longing to be free of his chains, the presence of his Catholic school friends accentuates the conflict in Stephen's mind (121).
If nothing else, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is valuable as a model of the power of word choice and the need for careful craftsmanship in writing. Many in this world of disaster and decay find themselves trapped in obligations and expectations, but as Joyce teaches, it is in being oneself that one is truly free.

Rating:
Summary: A Groundbreaker
Review: I read this years ago in college and once or twice afterwards though I haven't had the chance to re-read it in recent years. Still it lives on vividly enough in my memory to allow a review, here, I think.

Joyce was a strange one, where writing was concerned, focusing as he did on language as a means to evoke the world rather than merely for telling a "story". Over the years I have come to conclude that fiction requires narrative requires storytelling . . . and yet Joyce successfully broke that rule and he did it first in this book.

PORTRAIT is a book which builds the world of its narrator in the telling, without really following any kind of plot or storyline or giving us a beginning, middle and end. From the opening lines of ludicrous baby talk, where we see the world through the young hero's infantile eyes, to the end where the young lad, after much intellectual wrestling in his school days, steps off into the wider world, this is a book which paints a young man's coming of age, through his very subjective experience of life, with words. Indeed, all good writing "paints" its world to some extent. But Joyce, and several of his contemporaries, set out to re-write the rules of writing by only painting the picture, as though the story (an artificial element in most cases) did not count at all. And they did what they set out to do. Joyce did it most dramatically of all with this book. Like Hemingway, Joyce was a literary impressionist, building the world through bits of language instead of merely describing it or telling us about it.

I think we need to get back to basic story in our day, as theirs was, to some extent, a false trail. But it was a trail worth following and of great value to all readers and writers alike. Aspiring writers, and anyone with a real craving to explore the literary world, ought to have a go at this one. It's an original.

SWM

Rating:
Summary: I Love a Book with Controversy!
Review: This is one of those great pieces that really divides the audience. If you read fellow reviewers' comments, one says that no-one should rate this below 4 stars while another says no-one should rate it above 1 star. Some people admit they don't get it, some people say there is nothing to get, and some dive deep into Joyce's world. What a gift!

For my own thoughts...as I rate it, I think I need to rate it more as a piece of art rather than a typical piece of literature. When I review literature, I consider character development, plot development, narrator's voice, story-telling ability, etc. With Joyce, he shows you so much and tells you so little, that it's really hard to nail alot of facts down. How old is he in the beginning? How many siblings did he have? Did he have a crush on the same girl throughout the book? Why did Dante have 2 brushes? What exactly caused his father's fall? There is just so much information that Joyce doesn't bother telling you. It's like the opposite of watching "The Wonder Years" or "Scrubs" where you get a play-by-play account of the action and a foreshadowing of what was to come.

At first I was very unnerved by his approach. I like to have a groundwork laid, and I didn't even know how old Dedalus was when the book started (I had trouble translating the Irish school system to an equivalent year here). However, the world as seen through an intelligent but vulnerable and geeky boy was fascinating. I loved the vivid accounts as seen by a child with no attempt to correct or add to this perspective by some adult voice.

As the story progresses, Joyce skips through time, apparently selecting important scenes in his young life. But he doesn't tell you they are important. He just shows them to you, like flipping through a picture book. He leaves you to draw up your own conclusions. If nothing else, it was clear that Dedalus (representing Joyce) was on a tough track. He had an artist's temperament even early on (emotionaly, extreme, caught within himself), but as his family slipped into poverty such a nature would be harder and harder to accept.

By about the middle of the book, I became completely enraptured with his use of metaphors...the images are so lovely, so perfect, so unforced that it hardly seems right to compare them with the crude, simple, ignoble ones I run into so often in literature. This mastery of words thrilled my soul, regardless of the plotline and character development; in this way, it was more like music than literature.

By the end I saw a clear progression of Dedalus' character, as is well described in the 2nd spotlight review. Not only does the complexity of the writing increase as Dedalus grows older, but his characater evolves as he tests the water in many arenas. He has gone from a pretentious child who is so vulnerable because he has no outlet and no understanding of how he is different to one who can dialog with the masters (Aristotle, Aquinas, Augustine, etc). He has found a home in academia and a vocabularly to express his inner worlds. He made not have found peace yet, but he has found that he has a place in this world.

However, again, I would say that the understanding you gain is more like that of glimpses gained through art than through literature. I don't know that I could ever fully understand everything he was talking about, why he was talking about, who he was referring to, etc. Therefore, I rate this highly as a masterful artistic rendering of a coming-of-age story. If you are looking for a clear fiction or biography, however, this might not be for you.

Rating:
Summary: The Origin of Joyce's Transcendence.
Review: Joyce is not the easiest of writers to get along with. He is difficult, there is no question about that. But he is understandable given some small effort on the part of the reader. And the best way to handle this most literary of writers is to begin here with Portrait.

You see, although Joyce's work stands up seperately, the canon makes more practical sense taken as a whole. In Ulysses, for example, his most famous novel, we find a kind of sequel to Portrait, with Stephen Dedalus again featuring and Joyce completing his transcendence of language, culture and religion. Then in Finnegans Wake we have a book that nobody can really understand. A book that is both deeply human, and densely impenetrable.

So Portrait, a semi-autobiographical memoir, is the story of a young man's mind developing. It is Joyce's most accessible work, a slim volume of poetry called Chamber Music, left aside. That isn't to say it is an easy read. He had already developed a written-on-the-skin prose style. And some passages are quite heady. I think particularly of the sections on Catholic doctrine and whether it makes any sense.

What we have in Portrait is the development of an artist, we see how the artist takes his own background, his own experience as fodder for his work, but also needs to transcend his upbringing, to see himself from the outside to see the worth of it all, to measure the experience.

It is a deeply personal book, and in the hands of a lesser writer could appear utterly self-indulgent, but the prose throbs with genius. It carries you along into Joyce's worldview. It isn't a smooth journey, but it is never painful. And it gives you a good grounding in Joyce before going on to tackle the more experimental Ulysses.

Or if you've already read his magnum opus, it opens up avenues in the later work you may not have considered.

Joyce is a chunky, thick writer who demands your full attention. But he is also a beautiful poet and even readers who don't fully understand him can delight in his wordplay and the resonance of his sentences.

It is said that Ulysses is a novel that should be read out loud. And I think the same can be said of A Portrait. So, all in all, it is probably not a book to read on the train. It is a novel to be taken slowly and digested fully, perhaps in short bursts before going to sleep.

Not easy, but extremely rewarding.

Rating:
Summary: Portrait
Review: James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist has long been hailed as one of the great literary masterpieces. While it is a different style than I am accustomed to reading, I learned to appreciate its unique approach. The way Joyce links Stephen's seemingly random thoughts in the first chapter kept me on my toes and made me more aware of my own thought processes as I read.

Two parts of this book stand out in my mind; both deal directly with Stephen's personality changes. First, we watch Stephen change from a quiet, picked-on schoolboy to a student with increasing influence and authority. Suddenly (and seemingly without effort on his part), Stephen is no longer the isolated intellectual being pushed into ditches, but is leading younger boys in prayers. Just as Stephen won grudging respect from those who were his tormentors, he won my respect by refusing to tattle and giving into self-pity as so many others would. Second, we watch Stephen's spiritual journey. He is brought up surrounded by religion and is introduced early to the conflict between politics and religion. We see him turn from his religious background to "riotous living," then turn back when the preacher's "hell fire and damnation" sermons prick his conscience. Stephen adopts such a rigid, pious lifestyle that the priest invites the young man to join the priesthood. Stephen rejects this opportunity, saying he will inevitably fall again. Almost immediately afterwards, he sees a beautiful girl and feels "an outburst of profane joy." Through these two events, we track Stephen's growth and progress as he discovers his own personality. In large measure, it is this that that makes the novel so timeless. The struggle of offspring versus parents, of childhood teachings versus outside influences is an ever-present tension in adolescence. Stephen's struggle with his parents' religion seemed especially pertinent. All too often, people never stop to see analyze their religious beliefs, to see if there is a deeper reason for their convictions than just childhood habit. Stephen does not want to celebrate Easter, but is loath to cause an argument between his mother and himself-a struggle felt by anyone who has ever differed from their parents on any matter. Though not always this dramatic, there comes a point when children must think for themselves. Not being too far removed from that age myself, it will be interesting to re-read this book in years to come when the roles are reversed and I find myself the parent. I wonder if I will empathize more with Stephen's mother who hopes he can find a heart or if I will staunchly defend the young man's position.

Initially, I wasn't sure whether or not I like Portrait of the Artist, but it is a book that stays with you. The writing style is unique and interesting. Joyce's use of words such as "dismember" (rather than "cannot remember") and "whitegray not young" (to describe Father Dolan's face) captivated me. No one can deny that Joyce is a master of the language.

Rating:
Summary: A good heart, but not a good read
Review: I think my main problem with "Portrait" is simply the narrative itself. And please, don't get me wrong: I've read this twice and even took an English class where, for half the year, we personally analyzed this book and all motifs found through out. But even when I understand all that...this is still painful to read.

And here's the thing: there are parts in this book that I love. For example in the fourth chapter when it describes the main character seeing a girl dipping her toe into the water. I thought that part was well done. Or even the bits in the third chapter where the artist contemplates his sins, I liked those parts as well. But in between these parts, the story just gets so dreadfully DULL! I found myself at times skimming a few pages ahead just to see if this was getting any where.

I think the most hilarious instance in this book, at least for me, was during one of the last two chapters when the "artist" is talking to his four friends. He continues to dribble on and on about nothing. One of his friends tries to change the subject a few times, but our hero just keeps on chatting. Eventually they start to leave him one by one...

Again, this is a book that needs to be STUDIED at different moments, perhaps even QUOTED...but actually READING of this book should be a task taken only by James Joyce fans and the inquisitive only.

Rating:
Summary: Mixed Feelings
Review: Although A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce has been called a masterpiece by many, I did not enjoy reading it. It was a very well sculpted book, but I found it very hard to follow and rather dull. I could not relate to it very well. The language used typical of the time period and I am not very familiar with what was happening in Ireland at this time.
The book is about the life of Stephen Dedalus, but it might as well be about Joyce himself. Joyce follows all aspects of Stephen's growth throughout the political and religious turmoil in Ireland during the early 20th century.
We are introduced to Stephen as a very young boy through his interactions with his peers at a Catholic boarding school and his experiences with his family who is torn apart over the religious and political issues of the time. This book describes young Stephen's search for himself in this confusing society which he finally throws of himself to become an artist.
It is obvious that Joyce wrote every word of this book very deliberately. He repeatedly uses different symbols and images throughout the book. I must admit that he skillfully uses style throughout this book to portray the feelings of the time according to Stephen at each different time in his life. For example, the book begins with his sporadic flow of thought that is common among boys his age. It eventually comes to a very organized journal-like style associated with young adults.
Joyce did a good job writing this book and was very careful with every aspect of it; however, I did not enjoy it and would not recommend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Repeatedly Repulsive
Review: I have failed to understand the significance of Portrait, if it exists at all. If you don't like this book because you don't understand it, then that's OK, it is a book for distorted academicians. In other words, the author is elitist. Was Joyce so embued with self-sympathy that he decided to immortalize his life in the form of a book or what? The style of narration is egoistic: Mr. Joyce is so pumped up with innovation that he decides to startle the reader into admiration. And his motives are understandable: without the style, this book would be like sewage without a sewer.
Now the plot. What can I say? The plot concerns the life of a introvert by the name Stephen Dedalus. He is "different" for some reason, I guess because he shuns social contact, so he becomes an artist. Isn't that justified: you abandon yourself from society, and so you become a castaway, and to keep yourself from plunging into greater vagueness, you become an artist. This is, I feel a very selfish mindset. Its almost as if Joyce himself is justifying his lifestyle. Anyway. Stephen has many mundane travels in such boring places as his quaint Catholic school, the disenchanting streets of Dublin, and the descriptionally absent countryside. I sometimes wonder what this book is truly about: the sexual maturation of a castaway, or an exploration into a unappreciably vague mind, or perhaps a egoistic narrative of social evils? The book's conclusion is equally vague: nothing happens, as I understand it. The process of vagueness probably ends in shaping a teenager into an "artist." He even invents his "artistic theory", which is an unexpected break from the otherwise mysterious thoughts that choke his mind. There is plenty of sex (the bad kind, one that arises from pandering and failure), but not much more. Nonetheless, people most likely read this book to find out how it became famous. My experience was otherwise...

Rating:
Summary: What are the rest of you reviewers talking about?
Review: How could James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man not receive a single rating of five in all of these reviews? I dare all of you to read the book again and find other words besides "dull," which it isn't, and "thick," by which you might have meant "layered," in order to describe this masterpiece I see as certainly on par with Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.

Rating:
Summary: A good heart, but not a good read
Review: I think my main problem with "Portrait" is simply the narrative itself. And please, don't get me wrong: I've read this twice and even took an English class where, for half the year, we personally analyzed this book and all motifs found through out. But even when I understand all that...this is still painful to read.

And here's the thing: there are parts in this book that I love. For example in the fourth chapter when it describes the main character seeing a girl dipping her toe into the water. I thought that part was well done. Or even the bits in the third chapter where the artist contemplates his sins, I liked those parts as well. But in between these parts, the story just gets so dreadfully DULL! I found myself at times skimming a few pages ahead just to see if this was getting any where.

I think the most hilarious instance in this book, at least for me, was during one of the last two chapters when the "artist" is talking to his four friends. He continues to dribble on and on about nothing. One of his friends tries to change the subject a few times, but our hero just keeps on chatting. Eventually they start to leave him one by one...

Again, this is a book that needs to be STUDIED at different moments, perhaps even QUOTED...but actually READING of this book should be a task taken only by James Joyce fans and the inquisitive only.