Rating: 
Summary: Interesting book
Review: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is definitely a uniquely written, thought provoking book. Being a novel sharing the growth of an artist, it includes the experiences of a young man, Stephan Dedalus, and his interpretations of them. The novel is one of self-realization. This search occurs to everyone in life, as we set out in the world to see who we really are. The "who am I" dilemma is inevitable, and this novel shares the experience through an artist's perspective.
Through Stephan's experiences he learns many things. He realizes he's still a boy when he's young. He strives to grow, he strives to participate in mature activities, and he strives to be the person he thinks he is. Yet as in any life, he doesn't grow up until he learns from his experiences, and grows from the insight he gains in each one.
Joyce is an interesting author. The novel starts in a confusing fashion, the subject bounces, and the sentence structure is odd. However, his style ties into the growth of Stephan, and the connection between the writing style and story line is creative and interesting. The book starts when Stephen is young. His mind is scattered, and he doesn't see any need to analyze anything. He sees life from the surface, and lives to live instead of gain anything. This portion of the book is written in just this way. It tells the basics, it says what's going on, but offers no insight as to why, or how, or what anyone's thinking. As he grows older, however, Stephen learns and grows through his experiences. He gains maturity and insight into the things of life, and he offers a more thematic outlook on his experiences. He analyzes his situations, and gains more from them. The writing also matures. Words become meaningful, hidden symbols cover the pages, and with careful reading, the reader can see the growth in Stephen without paying attention to the plot.
The novel is full of these meanings, symbols, and analogies. There are connections to birds, maturity, art, beauty, and water. Others exist as well, and many are found through personal interpretation. To a reader merely reading the book, these small twists are ignored, leaving the book meaningless and boring with a decent plot but not one to get excited about. However, with careful study and analysis, one can be immersed in searching for the small symbols and meanings hidden within the writings of the novel.
The author goes in to a lot of detail about growth, and self-worth. A person needs to know who he is in order to fulfill everything he can out of life. Stephen's journey through this realization is portrayed a lot as he gets confused over girls, religion, family, school, and his personal insight on life. He feels alienated toward the world, as most people feel before they realize who they are. He's trying to place himself in a world without the experience needed to accomplish a position. Through his experiences, however, he learns. Stephen learns that living life is more important than figuring it out. And this realization alone helps him figure it out. He learns the pure joy of beauty and finds his joy in art, and in himself.
Over-all, the book was interesting. Being a person not too detail oriented, I had a rough time with it. However, after analysis and pondering, I came to enjoy the novel, and all it has to offer. I found the growth of Stephen interesting, and his inner struggle clearly portrayed through his experiences in life.
Rating: 
Summary: James Joyce: A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
Review: James Joyce's' fictional but semi- autobiographical novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, is a deep and extremely creative book. It is a novel about a boy, Stephen Dedalus and his struggles to grow up, break away from the confining restrictions of church, family, and country (patriotism), and to ultimately find himself as an individual and artist.
Throughout the book, Stephen moves around many schools, and is always alienated. At first, he longs for his family and feels like an outcast, isolated from his peers at school. Stephen' s sensitive nature and isolation from others is evident as he wallows in the unfairness and troubles he finds in various situations. Here, we first see Stephen beginning to develop some individuality when he decides to stand up for himself and speak to the schoolmaster when unfairness occurs. Rewarded for his bravery, Stephen begins to find more of a place among his peers, yet it is still awkward and difficult.
Constantly, we see Stephen trying to fit himself in places where he doesn't naturally fit. School is an excellent example of this. Sometimes his essays contain too much "heresy" for a Catholic school -teacher's liking, so they try to discourage and confine Stephen's true self. Often there are bullies which only elevate Stephen's fear to be himself, like the time when some bullies try to make him say one poet is better than another. Repressed by these forces, Stephen is very unhappy and confused.
In church, Stephen struggles to adapt himself to the moral rigors and rules of the Catholic faith. He in essence tries to purge himself of sin at one point after an incident with a prostitute and the sermons of a priest basically scare him into confession and piety. As he tries to deny his natural side but it is to no avail.
Stephen's plight is like that of a fish and a bird in love and the relationship just not being able to work. Stephen's body is like the fish and his soul is the bird. In the book, Stephen's soul tries to survive in the water, but he's drowning and unhappy. The end solution turns out to be the fish/ body of Stephen in essence growing it's own wings to be able to dwell in happiness with his soul.
Stephen has to make the choice to either give up his soul and individuality to adapt to society and the restraints of his family, country, and church or "to live, toe err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life." (Pg., 123). Obviously, by the end of the book, Stephen had "recreated" his life in a way that he could be free and happy. His newly created wings take him away from the country that tries to tie him down with patriotism, the family that drags him down with their unintelligent spending of money and rules, and the church with it's monopolizing power and foreboding echoes of damnation.
The book is a journey that uses a lot of abstract imagery, like birds and Stephen's feelings towards them at the beginning and the end of the book. At first, Stephen fears the birds: "the eagles will come and pull out his eyes."(Pg. 2) but gradually throughout the book, the birds change to a friendlier, beautiful thing to Stephen. I think this says a lot about his view of self-liberation and freedom. At the beginning, freedom is scary- all Stephen wants to do is be accepted, but by the end, the birds are "a strange and beautiful" (Pg. 123) thing that Stephen admires. His view of freedom has changed as he has liberated himself from the three restricting forces: Church, Family, and Country.
The talent of Joyce as a writer to convey vivid images and feelings to the reader cannot be denied. He is truly amazing at painting a picture with show not tell writing and description. I enjoyed that aspect of the book. Despite the talent of the author, I found this book to be uninteresting, strange, and annoying at times to read because it simply didn't cater to the reader. As an author shouldn't you write to the audience? I had to work vigorously just to keep my attention through the long, tricky passages where Joyce tries to represent something figuratively. It was often an annoyance and frustration that made the reading less enjoyable. Overall, the writing level of idea, creativity, and thought were excellent, I just thought he could have made his points and ideas more clear to the reader.
Rating:
Summary: Very Inspiring
Review: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce, is perhaps one of the most difficult books to get into that I have ever read. It begins somewhat randomly with odd words such as moocow and baby tuckoo. Joyce's thoughts are hard to follow, and the lack of true dialogue makes it even more difficult. Luckily, after enduring the first few pages, I was soon swept up into the troubled world of young Stephen Dedalus. I could relate to many of his childhood experiences and my heart ached for him at times. There were other instances when it was amusing to view the world through his young, boyish eyes.
As Stephen moves into adolescence, I am struck by the parallels between this book and Hermann Hesse's Beneath the Wheel. They both tell about the spiritual journey of two young boys, though the endings are different. I feel a deep sense of empathy with Stephen's estrangement from his peers, his guilt, and his desire to do what is right. When he goes off to University I really admire his change in personality. He begins to develop a nonconformist attitude, and decides not to do things just because other people think he should. He branches off from his peers and goes about developing his artistic abilities. He listens to his internal forces, rather than the outside influences. This is the ideal personality, the perfect way to live your life. It was so refreshing to read about someone who was able to shake of the chains of society and live his own life. He is unconcerned with politics and appreciates the aesthetic quality in all things. Beauty becomes very important to him. Near the end he makes the decision to follow the footsteps of his namesake, Daedalus the mythical creator of wings, and fly. He leaves Ireland in order to become completely free. I admire his deep independence, although his moral convictions I do not. I think a firm religious foundation is essential for truly becoming an individual. That was Stephen's tragic flaw; an anti-religion attitude. I understand his unwillingness to accept Catholicism just because his family was Catholic. The greatest men in history have searched long and passionately until they found what true religion meant to them. That is the one thing that restricts Stephen's progression. He would have been truly great, if only he would have sought for religious truth.
This novel was enjoyable to read most of the time. It was cleverly written with vivid descriptions and a unique style. This book is not for everyone to read. Those with closed minds and hearts should not even bother. However, those looking for a moving, inspiring story would do well to venture into this book. It's fascinating to watch Stephen grow up and mature and see how things that happened when he was a boy, profoundly affect his adolescence and adulthood. So, screw your patience to the sticking place for the first few pages, and delve into James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist. You'll like what you find.
Rating:
Summary: A portrait examined...
Review: James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a fascinating tale, woven with a fresh stream-of-consciousness style that follows the thoughts of the artist, Stephen Dedalus, from childhood to adolescence to eventual maturity. Although written in the third-person, the prose evolves in a first-person fashion with Stephen, from his youthful contemplation of "wild rose blossoms on the little green place" to his fully adult conception of "the virgin womb of the imagination" wherein "the word was made flesh" (1, 158). In addition to the progressive complexity of the ideas, repetition of symbols-the colors of governess Dante's brushes, black dirty mazes, soaring birds, earthy peasant smells-also tie the flowing text together, providing reference, cohesiveness and depth. Rich imagery and symbolism give this deceptively simple tale added meaning, expanding the story from that of a single struggling artist to a sweeping metaphor for the human desire to create.
Stephen Dedalus is a contradictory character, full of ambiguities and internal oppositions. He dreams of classic-book heroes and innocent virginal heroines within his room, yet seeks prostitutes on the solid dark mazes of the city streets. He yearns to find and embrace God and religion, almost reaching the priesthood itself-then denies his faith entirely. He loves his country, his mother, his friends, but forsakes them all in pursuit of his artistic vision. These many dissimilar aspects of Stephen seem bound together only by his passion for writing, his inner yearning to see, to create. Like the Daedalus of the Greek myth, who created beautiful wings to escape a twisted labyrinth of his own design, Stephen finds a freedom, exhilaration in his capacity to write beauty. As he matures, his visions of lovely birds replace the austere confines of the religious bench and his ability to imagine soars above his need for family, friends, and church until he is torn free from his old life entirely, flying unfettered into boundless skies of his art.
Yet in the Greek myth, there are two who manage to fly from the maze-Daedalus, the creator of wings and labyrinth both, and his youthful son, Icarus. Icarus, excited by his freedom from the dark confines of the maze, soars higher, higher, in spite of his father's warnings, until the dazzle of the sun melts the wax of his wings and sends him plunging, helpless, to his doom. Daedalus himself survives, a witness to the death of his son, alone and a fugitive, a man who has lost all in pursuit of his art. Stephen himself could be either of the two mythical figures-by the end of the book he is still young, unproven, his creative ideas barely starting to take form. His youthful foibles could be tempered with time, maturity guiding him to unseen distant shores, or his pride could expand, lifting him into the deadly rays of the sun. Joyce never makes clear the fate of the youthful protagonist within the novel-by the end, Stephen has barely started his flight from the dark maze of his old life on the wings of his art, the feathers still fresh and firmly attached to the newly-made frame, his course uncertain. Yet in his glorious discovered wings lies a hint of all humanity, the portion of mankind with a driving urge to create, to lift voice, pen, brush in the pursuit of liberty and beauty. Through the lens of that wide backdrop, that significance, Joyce's novel captures a harsh reality and contrasts it with imagination wonder in a powerful portrait well worth examining.
Rating: 
Summary: one of the best books of the twentieth century
Review: "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is easily one of the greatest books of the twentieth century. Rarely is such a mastery of the English language encountered. James Joyce has an almost uncanny ability to create images and feelings out of words. He manages to describe a place and also the feelings of the main character when he's in that place with teh same set of words.
The story itself is almost inconsequential. As I read it I was so caught up in Stephen's self-destructive spiral that I could never pass any sort of moral judgement. I had to like Stephen because he was so human. His dilemmas and his emotions were so real, and Joyce was able to bring them to life with his words.
As a previous reviewer has said, it is true that to understand certain parts of the book, it helps to have a little background on Irish politics at the turn of the century (or at least know who Parnell is) but a few minutes of internet research will do that for you. As for strange words and slang, the language becomes more elevated as Stephen grows up (a touch of genius, if you ask me) so that's not really much of a problem. Stephen's final break with tradition as he answers the call of Daedalus, his namesake, is magnificent to read. All in all, this book is definitely worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: The Masterpice
Review: A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man is a gripping novel about a boy's coming of age and struggle of growing up in Ireland. It's most often seen as James Joyce's life in retrospect. This book is about Stephen Dedalus' struggle with growing up, fitting in with society, and questions about religion.
It begins as Stephen recounts his early years beginning at the age of six and attending the prestigious Congowes Boarding School. His parents are always in debt and barely scraped enough money to send him there. He goes to Belvedere College the next year because his parents can no longer afford to send him to that school. There he excels in writing and acting, yet does not have the religious fervency that his mother has, nor the political passion his father possesses. He longs for someone to understand him. He doesn't have many friends, yet longs to fit in. He happens to fall into the arms of a prostitute, and therefore goes through with his first sexual encounter. Afterward he feels the hot shame of his sins and momentarily embraces Catholicism. He desperately wants forgiveness of his sins when he goes to a church retreat for his school. There the priest preaches about the damnation of hell and repentance. Stephen feels that the sermons are directed to him and goes to confess his sins to a priest who could care less. He continues to go to Mass everyday, and later his sins come back to him and he feels as though his confession was not legitimate. A priest from his school notices his newfound piety, and asks him if he would think seriously about becoming a priest. Stephen later goes to a beach to think and suddenly an epiphany happens before his eyes. He's seriously contemplating the action of becoming a priest when he sees a beautiful girl standing in the water. As he walks away from her, he realizes that it is not a bad thing to want the beautiful things in life. Everything in Ireland is now frustrating him, and he concludes that the only way that he could be happy is to leave Ireland and become an artist. There is a lot of symbolism with birds. Dedalus is a person in Greek mythology whose father made him wings to fly. This was Stephen's opportunity to fly away from all his problems there and to fly away from the person he once was.
Personally, I liked this book. It showed me how some people do suffer over certain things. Stephen tried to be part of the crowd in every aspect of his life, yet he didn't fit in anywhere. He was tormented over his sin with the harlot, only to discover that it wasn't a bad thing to want beauty. I love how he is happy in the end, even though it is leaving his beloved country. He felt freed from a lifetime of restraint and confusion, and for the first time felt good about life. This is a book of renewal and self- discovery, and I would recommend this classic book to any one I know.
Rating:
Summary: Joyce the Artist Himself
Review: A Portrait of a Young Artist is a beautiful piece of literature that explores the development of Stephen Dedalus from a young man into an artist. The novel is somewhat autobiographical in that Joyce explores and analyzes his life though the main character Stephen, and through this is trying to make sense of his past and what that makes him. Stephen becomes more independent in his thinking throughout the novel. He is trying to find out who he is in relationship to his family, his peers, Catholicism, and his country. Joyce uses symbolism as well as language and syntax to show Stephen's development.
The language and syntax of the novel parallel the development of Stephen. Chapter one is written in stream of consciousness. Joyce uses this effective tool to really show how a five or six year old would be thinking. The novel begins with a story Stephen's father told him. Then it moves to him wetting the bed, then to his nextdoor neighbor, and then to the boys playing on the play ground. The writing is just as a little child would think. It seems illogical to an adult, but to a child it is logical. The word choice Joyce uses is also very effective. "Rody Kickham was a decent fellow but Nasty Roche was a stink." The word stink also parallels Stephen's age. In chapter three the language is more fully developed. " He feared intensely in spirit and in flesh but, raising his head bravely, he strode into the room firmly." Intensely, bravely and firmly show that Stephen is growing and maturing. By the end of the novel the writing is no longer in stream of consciousness and the language is complex. " A soft liquid joy flowed through the words where the soft long vowels hurtled noiselessly and fell away, lapping and flowing back and ever shaking the white bells of their waves in mute chime and mute peal and soft low swooning cry." Words are no longer just letters; they have meaning and purpose. In this Stephen fully realizes who he is he is an artist. He has completed his change from a boy to a man.
Stephen's development is also shown by birds, which symbolize freedom. The more freedom Stephen has the more he is able to explore who he really is. In the beginning of the novel the birds talked about are unpleasant. Stephen's governess Dante teases him with a poem about an eagle pulling out his eyes. Therefore, this eagle connotes fear as well as something with power, power over him. Then, the bird transforms into his rival and friend Vincent Heron. Instead of being controlled by the bird he is pushed by it, furthering his development. Then, the bird becomes something Stephen wishes to aspire to. " His throat ached with a desire to cry aloud, the cry of a hawk or eagle on high, to cry piercingly of his deliverance to the winds." Now, the eagle that had once tormented him was a symbol of freedom and life.
A Portrait of a Young Artist is not a book for everyone. It is not easy reading. There is also no plot line to pull the reader along so, the reader must be actively engaged in reading the novel. Also, Joyce uses complex jargon and phrasing. Some parts may have to be read through two or three times before their meaning unfolds. The reader also has to let themselves get lost in the writing, dive into the words, make them your own. The language and symbols Joyce uses are beautiful. He is a master and an artist of words which is what makes this book worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Lesson for Life
Review: "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is an eloquent novel that reveals James Joyce's literary genius. The story, which seems to be based on some of Joyce's life, is told using a third person limited omniscient narrator, but often appears to be told through the eyes of the main character Stephen Dedalus. The story is set in late nineteenth century Ireland shadows the growth and development of Stephen during his early years. He begins his journey as a young lad, oppressed by his parents, society, and religion. The diction and tone employed in the early stages of the novel are that of a young child. As we see Stephen's passage through life we also observe a progression of the writing. As Stephen becomes more educated both scholastically and in the ways of the world, Joyce's writing style progresses with him. This fluctuation in style effectively portrays the changes in Stephen, and the ever-widening rift that he creates between himself and his oppressors. Throughout the book, Stephen struggles to separate his own life with the life that he is expected to live. Through a series of vividly descriptive epiphanies, Stephen discovers that his own ideas, though contrary to his upbringing, are acceptable. The book concludes with a series of personal journal entries of Stephen's in which he rejoices in his new found life exclaiming "Welcome, O life!"(185). The lessons learned by Stephen Dedalus have great application to our own lives, proving that sometimes we must cast off our upbringing and venture out on our own to discover who we are. This lesson coupled with Joyce's imaginative, symbolic style makes for a killer combination. "Portrait" is an excellent read!
Rating:
Summary: Confused
Review: Confusion. This novel is for those of educated minds. Stream-of-conscious runs through this book and only stops as you stop to re-read each page to find out what happened. The book runs free from subject to subject, all seen through the mind of Stephen Dedalus. His imagination runs freely throughout the book and it is sometimes hard to pick up whether what your reading is reality or just a thought process. Symbolism. Every word, sentence, and page is key to understanding this novel. If your focus wanders away for one paragraph, you lose, game over and go back to the beginning to start reading again. The thick symbolism makes it hard to read, but Joyce is able to capture many feelings through the symbolism of birds.
I couldn't get into this book. Every time the book was about to pull me in, a sudden change of pace would leave me scratching my head. This novel seemed to drag me nowhere, granted it is a classic, my classic eyes, nose, and ears say "no" to this book.
This is a well-written novel told about a young boy's life as he grows up. You learn side by side as this young boy, Stephen Dedalus, learns of life. You see things as he sees them, experience things as he experiences them, and feel as he feels. Whether it's fear, loneliness, pride or remorse, the feelings are lived as Stephen's imagination and life intertwine themselves together through each page.
This is a great novel if you have a Joyce-code-reader that helps you understand the Irish slang, Latin and symbolism. Irish slang dots this book, Latin develops it, and symbolism flies through it. This plot-less book is very hard to understand, which conveys Stephen's attitude toward life. He, a young man, is very confused in life. There are five stages in which Stephen goes through in this novel. He goes through school homesick, and looking for an identity other than his father's. Joyce depicts the family through debate at the dinner table, showing the strong political views of Stephen's father. Stephen also finds himself in a growing situation at school. After being wrongly beaten by the prefect of studies, Stephen decides to go and tell the rector on him. Fear mounts as he enters the hall across from the rector's room, but joy comes as he excitedly runs to tell his friends what happened. As he continues to experiment with life as he finds himself wading through sin. He struggles with the lusts of the natural man, as he gets involved with the opposite sex. And then it hits him. A power sermon about death, judgment, heaven and hell chain his soul down as he wishes to escape the eternal torment that surrounds him. He wants his soul to be at peace. And so through a battle with his conscience he repents and frees himself from sin. He then devotes his life to religion and purity. Seeing his devotion to the priesthood, a Father offers him a vocation. However, he discovers another path to paint the picture of his life. He journeys away to find his freedom lies in being an artist. If you're going to read this book, put your code-decrypter nearby and get ready for a ride through the mind of Joyce.
Rating: 
Summary: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Review: Although James Joyce uses superior methods of description, symbolism, and analogy in Portrait of an Artist, I found the content and overall story hard to follow, random, and disorganized, not to mention boring. I had few problems identifying and following the story of Stephen Dedalus as a young child, however, I became lost and confused as Stephen got older. There were few transitions to identify Stephen's age progression, and I found myself confused as to when, how, and why Stephen had grown up and ended up in the arms of a prostitute. My impression was still that of a gradeschool boy, and I did not fully comprehend how old Stephen actually was until his confession with the priest.
Perhaps my own upbringing has hindered my understanding and comprehension of Stephen's life. Never having been a member of the Catholic church, I found it hard to understand Stephen's background and beliefs, which has much emphasis within this story.
Overall, I would say the organization of this book is its downfall. Portrait was tedious, hard to follow, boring, and unrelatable. One of the greatest works within English literature? Sorry, but not in my "book."
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