Joyce 194-253 (10.25.2005)

After I finished the novel, I reread my past journals. With knowledge of Stephen’s eventual fate, I clearly see how ideas that stood out to me previously connect with ideas that stand out to me now. Perhaps most noticeably is the imagery of bird and flight that reoccurs throughout Joyce’s writing.

This concept of flight is first introduced in relation to Stephen’s last name. His namesake, Daedalus, built wings to escape prison, mirroring Stephen’s desire to escape misery and poverty. Daedalus is “a symbol of the artist forging anew in his workshop out, of the sluggish matter of the earth a new soaring impalpable imperishable being” (160). Stephen now realizes that an individual can rise above the world and fly, similar to the soul.

Towards the end of the novel, the flying imagery reappears as Stephen studies the birds flying overhead. The imagery of “their flight; bird after bird: a dark flash, a swerve, a flash again, a dart aside, a curve, a flutter of wings” mirrors Stephen’s own eventual flight toward heroism and the real world and away from poverty (224). The birds offer Stephen a relief from his daily situation for “the inhuman clamour soothed his ears in which his mother’s sobs and reproaches murmured insistently and the dark frail quivering bodies wheeling and fluttering and swerving round an airy temple of the tenuous sky soothed his eyes which still saw the image of his mother’s face” (224).

This progression of symbolism also mirrors Stephen’s character transformation. Similar to Stephen’s increasing identification with birds and flight is his increased formation of his own language. In the beginning of the novel, Stephen identifies with characters from poems and books he reads. As the novel opens, Stephen’s father is telling him a story, and Stephen identifies with one of the characters, claiming, “he was a baby tuckoo” (7). Even as a young child, Stephen is forming his identity around literature. Later, Stephen develops a tendency to imagine himself as a character participating in adventures that take place in The Count of Monte Cristo. In this instance, Stephen uses his imagination and identification with literature to escape financial problems occurring within his family; he is a hero participating in grand adventures. Clearly, Stephen uses art and literature to create an identity that mirrors the feelings he is experiencing at the time. In the end of the novel, however, Stephen forms his own voice. This is evident through the journal-style writing of the final section of chapter 5. Stephen no longer has to imitate a form of speech or quote someone else, but instead he is sincere and thought-provoking in his development of his own language within his journal entries for each day.

My Discussion Board Responses

Thomas Lopez

At the end of your entry, you discuss Joyce’s purpose in writing this book. I think Joyce is trying to communicate a path with his reader. We can recognize that Joyce was inconsistent in his beliefs and actions, but perhaps this revelation is his purpose in writing. Joyce could be attempting to show us the difficult paths individuals go on in their attempts at self-discovery. We can’t expect to wake up one morning and be completely consistent in our beliefs and transformations. Growing up is a process of finding ourselves and working out the inconsistencies and flaws in our beliefs and actions.