A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man-Like Father, Like Son

"Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo" (Joyce 3).

The above quote is the opening paragraph of the novel. This is the only time throughout the novel in which the voice is someone's other than Stephen or an outside narrator. This paragraph is spoken by his father, who throughout the course of the novel, becomes the symbol of Steven's family struggles and the choices he makes regarding his devotion to his family heritage. The above paragraph symbolizes Stephen's dependency on his mother and father to feed him stories and information to keep his mind occupied. The narration on the first page switches between an outside narrator and Stephen's father signifying that while Stephen is old enough to have some personal thoughts and emotions, his mind is not advanced enough to produce any productive acitivity. This dependency is representative of not only Stephen's emotional and mental dependency on his parents, but it is also representative of his parents' responsibility to his religious upbringing and to his education of his heritage.

The next pivotal event that concerns Stephen's father is his sudden, grave financial situation. In this instance, Stephen's father loses wealth, symbolizes the beginning of Stephen's realization that he cannot find wealth in his current life. Stephen's lack of wealth, however, is not monetary, it is a lack of friendship and self discovery that leaves him "poor." He has no friends at Clongowes and starts questioning why he blindly follows the society standards that he will eventually discover hold him back. With Stephen's father's financial loses, comes a loss of trust. Stephen find he can no longer find stability within in family, and he begins questioning if he can find stability in any form of authority, including the church and government.

Stephen's break from his father, and therefore his religion and heritage, becomes clear when Stephen and his father visit Cork where his father gets drunk and reminisces about his past. Joyce paints a picture of a man who is self-destructive and, instead of facing his problems, he masks them with alcohol and nostalgia. Stephen's inability to positively handle his sexual desires mirrors his father's inability to handle his own stresses, and in some ways, Stephen's use of prostitutes reflects his father's dependency on alcohol and memories. The lack of ability for Stephen to connect with his father, mirrors the way in which Stephen cannot connect with the Catholic Church or the government and society of Ireland.

As Stephen advances and enters his late teen years, his father is mentioned less and less. At the beginning of Chapter 5, the distance between the two is quite clear: "Is your lazy bitch of a brother gone out yet?" (189). This scene at home happens just before Stephen truly immerses himself into the study of aesthetics and art and writing. This obvious separation from his father is Stephen's symbolic break from the burdens that organized religion and his heritage have placed on him. Stephen's father represents everything that was holding Stephen back from becoming the artist he was meant to be.

"His heart trembled; his breath came faster and a wild spirit passed over his limbs as though he were soaring sunward. His heart trembled in an ecstasy of fear and his soul was in flight. His soul was soaring in an air beyond the world and the body he knew was purified in a breath and delivered of incertitude and made radiant and comingled with the element of the spirit. An ecstasy of flight made radiant with his eyes and wild his breath and tremulous and wild and radiant his windswept limbs," (183).

Before we even began reading this novel, we were instructed to research the Dedalus myth. The above passage correlates directly to the Deadalus myth, in which, Deadalus constructed his own wings to escape from his own prison toward the sun. The above paragraph is a paragraph of escape and purification. The repetition of the word "wild" symbolizes Stephen's deep connection to the purest, most primal form of himself. He becomes one with nature, untamed by religion, family, or government. The idea that his heart "trembled" instead of "beat" describes Stephen's close proximity to his passion-his passion for words. His soul is said to "comingle" with his body, which signifies the long-awaited connection between Stephen's physical being and his wants, needs, and desires. The idea that his flight, symbolic of freedom, is radiant and wild to his eyes, breath, and limbs indicates that freedom has advanced on all aspects of Stephen's being: his vision, his soul, and his body. This passage immediately precedes Stephen's viewing of the bird-like, beautiful woman in the ocean, which marks his acceptance of women as beautiful being, instead of creatures of desire. It is this flight, this freedom, that allows Stephen to view the world in a way that does not prohibit him from becoming the artist he is meant to be.

Opinion:

Well, I have to admit, this book was not very enjoyable to read alone. I often found myself confused or too wrapped up in word choice to see what exactly was going on at a given point in the story. However, the class discussions of specific passages were very enjoyable. It amazes me that someone can so acutely record thought process and the act of aging. Both are intangible ideas that Joyce was able to transform into word form. It blows my mind. It's interesting because I find myself wondering that if this story had been written from a female perspective, would I have enjoyed the novel more and been able to follow the thought process with less confusion? Possibly. But I think this is a novel that is easily applicable to some part, whether it be meaningless or important, of everyone's life. The only elements I missed from this book were the views others had toward Stephen. While it could be assumed or deduced, I feel like I could not full grasp the character of Stephen because no one else's thought were recorded. I understand that that is the idea of this book, for it to be only Stephen's thoughts, but I still missed outside views.

"The warden said to me" Etheridge Knight #250

In just a few words, Etheridge Knight effectively shows the mental toll segregation had on blacks who suffered.

The speaker of this poem is an imprisoned African American by the name of Etheridge who is recalling a seemingly meaningless conversation with the white warden. Since Etheridge is the name of the author of this poem, it can be assumed that this poem is at least slightly a reflection of himself. It is clear that Etheridge is familiar with the assumption that whites are oblivious to the pain and suffering blacks endure from segregation and feelings of inferiority. The speaker uses some sarcasm in the line, "I lowered my jaw and scratched my head" (line 5). Through this sentence Etheridge is characterizing himself as dumb, which is a common stereotype of the African American race. Ironically, his response is full of meaning and intelligence. In saying, "we ain't got no wheres to run to," (line 8), Etheridege is metaphorically saying that a better life awaits blacks no where, and being physically imprisoned may be more favorable over being imprisoned in their own neighborhoods. This highlights the mischaracterizations of the African American race that have prevented them from advancing and running towards a better life.

There is no rhyme scheme or particular meter in this poem. The lack of both of these components gives the poem a conversational feeling, which makes the poem a personal account of a situation, instead of merely a description of a situation. In creating the poem this way, Knight is going beyond simply making a point. He is able to acutely describe the desperate situation of an entire race, without the use of sensory detail. He utilizes his personal thoughts through the parenthetical interjections, however, the last line makes this poem applicable to the African American race as a whole, not just to one person.

This entire poem is slightly ironic and utilizes sarcasm. The white warden uses improper English in the line "why come the black boys don't run off," (line 3). This characterization of the warden leads the reader to believe that the warden is not particularly intelligent. In fact, the warden's speech mirrors the speech of Etheridge, which symbolically puts the two people on the same level, and thus makes the statement that all humans are equal in that we all exist in the same physical world, but all humans are not equal based on their opportunities. The parenthetical interjection that read: "innocently, I think" are slightly sarcastic. The comma after innocently causes a natural break signifying thought. This break changes the meaning of his thought from "he's asking this innocently" to "he may seem innocent, but he's actually just ignorant." The second time Etheridge says "innocently, I think," it is in reference to his own response, which leads the reader to believe that Etheridge is not in fact being innocent, but trying to convince himself that he is. As mentioned before, when Etheridge describes himself lowering his jaw and scratching his head, he is characterizing himself as stupid. This description is clearly sarcastic after his intelligent response is read. Additionally, the warden's question, "Why come the black boys don't run off like the white boys do?" reads as a silly question, from a man who is supposed to have such high authority. Etheridge's response, on the other hand, is full of meaning and witt, even though he is regarded as the person with less authority and intelligence. This situation in itself is ironic.

Neither "etheridge" or "suh" is capitalized, which takes away from the personal feeling that the conversation format creates. The choice to not capitalize the names puts these two individuals on the same level, allowing solely their intelligence to create status, instead of their race, occupation, or opportunities. Clearly, Etheridge portrays himself as much more intelligent than the warden, so perhaps Knight is trying to say that without consideration of race, age, gender, or beliefs, those who are degraded will surpass expectations.

I really enjoyed this poem. It reminded me a lot of Invisible Man, especially the line, "Keep that n***** boy running." Both that line and this poem express the idea that blacks could try to escape segregation and harassment, but in reality, there was no safe place for them. I really enjoyed the idea that this poem was so short, and yet the meaning is so deep. The form of the poem, the personal feelings of the poem, and the simplicity of the poem made it an easy poem to read, but a meaningful poem regardless. This is my favorite type of poetry. The poetry that is easily understood on the surface, but has meaning beyond. I also loved Etheridge's response. It is so simple, and yet so complex simultaneously.

"The Snow Man"-Wallace Stevens #283

In "The Snow Man," Wallace explains the inability of humans to see the world around them without passing judgement or thinking of human condition. Through this poem, Wallace argues the differences between reality and imagination.

The speaker of this poem is given the responsibility of explaining to the reader the difference between the way a human views a scene, versus the way in which a non-living object would view a scene. I picture the speaker overlooking a scenario in which a person walks out of their home after a snow storm, miserable due to the blanket of snow making it difficult to carry out their everyday chores. A snowman stands in his yard, unaffected by the winter scene. This poem has a slight didactic feel in that the speaker is trying to preach to his readers how much beauty exists in the world that is hidden because of humans' inability to view a situation completely selflessly.

This poem is one long sentence in five tercets, put together as verse. This run-on sentence gives the poem a feeling of being surreal, as if from the confusion of one's mind. Since one cannot truly know what the world would look like through the eyes of a nonliving being, imagination is a contributing factor to Stevens' rationale. There is also no particular meter; each foot varies: the poem becomes a combination of iambs ("the frost," "and not," "the sound," "that is"), trochees ("winter," "glitter,"), anapests ("to regard," "to behold," "of the land"), dactyls ("junipers"), and spondee ("pine-trees). The lack of a uniform meter throughout this poem mirrors the way in which a given situation will vary based on a person's current condition. For example, a child may be excited by the prospect of snow due to their playful disposition. On the other hand, an adult may be worried by the prospect of snow due to the presence of a new teenage driver in the family. In both situations, snow, and thus nature, is not being viewed without the influence of one's personal situation.

Stevens utilizes multiple shifts of point-of-view. In the first stanza, the reader becomes the "we" who has "a mind of winter," in this case a snow man. Stevens gives solely visual descriptions, purposely excluding any other senses that form a negative connotation of winter (i.e. sense of touch=cold of winter). The line, "And have been cold a long time" (line 4), mirrors the first line of the poem in that both are suggesting that one must become numb to the human effects of winter, and nature in general, in order to truly see the landscape as it is. In the third stanza the reader is transitioned from the snowman to the average human who finds "misery in the sound of the wind,/In the sound of a few leaves" (lines 8-9). The sensory detail of sound is incorporated in this stanza, which emphasizes the change from snowman to human. Sound transitions the reader into the next stanza, which makes the human the land, and thus nature itself. Stevens says that the sound of wind that humans find so miserable, is the same wind "that is blowing in the same bare place" (line 12). In this line, and the line that follows, Stevens draws a direct connection between humans and nature in that they exist on the same Earth, in the same conditions, however these conditions differ due to human condition and imagination. The "one" with whom the reader has identified himself has now become "the listener, who listens in the snow" in the last stanza. He has become the snow man, and he knows winter "with a mind of winter", knows it in its strictest reality, stripped of all imagination and human feeling. But at that point when he sees the winter scene reduced to absolute fact, as the object not of the mind, but of the perfect perceptual eye that sees "nothing that is not there," then the scene, devoid of its imaginative correspondences, has become "the nothing that is." The last stanza from this point of view almost poses a paradox. At the beginning of the poem, Stevens alludes to the idea that humans cannot see the land for what it truly is because it is always marred by human condition. However, in the last stanza, Stevens alludes to the idea that nature is what it is because of human imagination. This leaves a debate open for discussion. The numerous shifts in this poem create an unbreakable bond between humans and nature, and suggests that one cannot thrive or exist without the other.

Steven's word choice, or diction, add to the image of the winter landscape he is trying to portray. The words "crusted," "shagged," and "rough," give the vision of a very bare nature, and provide the sharpest, clearest image of nature, as seen through the eyes of the snowman. The reader is then exposed to phrases that allow them to hear with the acutest ear the cold images evoking the sense of barrenness and monotony: "sound of the wind," "sound of a few leaves," "sound of the land," "same wind," "same bare place," "For the listener, who listens in the snow." Even the word "few" before leaves signals that little life exists. These descriptions relate to humans, and the common feeling that winter is a time representative of death, monotony, and loneliness. The repetition of the word "nothing" in the last stanza accentuates not only the idea of emptiness, but the idea that perhaps one can never truly grasp the world around them, for with imagination, the landscape is morphed, and without imagination, the scene does not exist.

Once I got into the analysis of this poem, I found myself having a great deal of difficulty. Some wording is complex and the overall message of this poem is a tad obscure. What I like in this poem is the way that the landscape is placed inside of the person. ("Full of the same wind/That is blowing in the same bare place" (lines 10-11)). The wind is blowing inside the watcher as well as outside so it is understood more easily why this person who is 'nothing' can behold the 'nothing that is not there and the nothing that is'. I liked the point made that humans cannot view a situation without thinking of the immediate effects it will have on them. This poem poses an interesting debate. Does human condition and imagination scar nature or create it? Personally, I think human condition scars nature. I think human condition and imagination twists any situation, which is how the saying, "There's three sides to every story: their side, your side, and the truth," came to be. Subconsciously, an individual will take any situation and view its effects differently based on their situation. I also found it interesting that typically snowman is one word, not two like in the title. This suggests that the poem is not solely about a snowman, but a man and how he views the snow.

"On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High"-D.C. Berry #203

While some may seem to be oblivious and ignorant to the potential of impacts of poetry, the sharing of literature can yield surprising results, as shown through "On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High."

Just by reading the title of the poem, much can be assumed about the speaker. The speaker of the poem is someone reading poems to a senior class. The word "a" in the title as opposed to "the" or "my" implies that the speaker does not belong to the class. It can also be inferred that the speaker is a guest to the school, as opposed to a teacher from the lines: "They went to another class/ I suppose and I home" (lines 24-25). A teacher would most likely have another class to teach and would not go home in the middle of a school day. Sine the speaker is a guest, it can be assumed that this person is an expert regarding poetry.

By referring to the class as "frozen fish" in the first stanza, the speaker uses simile to highlight what he assumes is there disinterest in poetry. The speaker is forming opinions of them and anticipating their lack of enthusiasm ( "Before / I open my mouth" (lines 1-2)). By saying the word "Before," the speaker is giving a time frame in relation to when he began to speak, indicating that a change will occur once he opened his mouth.

There is no rhyme scheme in this poem, making the poem seem very conversational, as though the speaker is speaking casually to the reader. This mood makes it seem as though the speaker is trying to teach a lesson, while retelling a particular scenario. This poem is in free verse, however the stanzas increase in fluidity (the number of syllables per line), until the fifth stanza when the climax of the poem ( stanza 4) is over and the fluidity begins to decrease. This increase and decrease mirrors the water, and thus the inspiration, that flows in and out of the room.

This poem itself is an analogy. The water is symbolic of the inspiration and understanding that results frompoetry. One can immerse themselves in water, just as they can immerse themselves into the "depths ofpoetry." If one simply looks at the ocean, they cannot fully grasp the wonders that lie below the surface. However, even looking below the surface does not even give one the true experience of the ocean-one must become part of the ocean, as the class does in stanzas three and four. (Water was an interesting choice to compare the class to, since a group of fish is also known as a "class"). The speaker says that he does not notice the water "til it reached/my ears" (lines 7-8), indicating that the impact the poetry has on the students is not apparent until discussion is facilitated. The gills that the speaker mentions ("with my words/that they had only opened up/ like gills for them/ and let me in" (lines 14-17)), represent the disguised ability the students have to comprehand and analyze poetry. The line, "Together we swam around the room" (line 18), represents the way in which the students and the speaker immersed themselves in the language of poetry, thereby exploring a new world. The hole "punctured" in the door represents the literal world where everyday obligations exist.

Berry uses shift to create the transformation and changing feelings of the speaker and the students. The first stanza places the speaker in an ordinary classroom, with a condescending attitude regarding the way students will react to poetry. In the next stanza, the speaker has begun to read and notices water filling the room only once "it reached / my ears." Possibilities are arising with such a strange occurrence. The poem moves the speaker from a literal classroom, people simply resembling fish, to a figurative classroom where the reader seems to be more comfortable. With the continuation of the aquatic imagery, the speaker is more able to anticipate the positive reactions of the students. The next stanza rids the classroom completely. I still sense condescention, especially when the speaker says that the bell punctures a hole in the wall. While the students may have been immersed in the poetry temporarily, the speaker believes that the students are still ruled by the ringing of the bell, and the "real" world outside of the written word. In the final shift of the poem, from the classroom to his home, the speaker even admits to being ruled by responsibility when he speaks of his cat "Queen Elizabeth." His cat represents household responsibility, while the name "Queen Elizabeth" alludes to society's obsession with status and fame, which has distracted many people from the written word.

I really enjoyed this poem. The title is what originally drew me to this poem because I felt as though I could relate to the senior class mentioned in the title. I really enjoyed the slow transformation from classroom to sea and then the transformation back to real life. I still have mixed feelings about whether or not the speaker is condescending and elitist the entire poem. I think that at the beginning of the poem, when the speaker describes the students as "frozen fish," and at the end of the poem, the speaker is condescending. However, I think the air of condescention disappears when the speaker and the students allow themselves to be taken away from the written word. This poem uses shift and analogies to symbolically show the effects poetry and the written word have.

"I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud" -William Wordsworth #295

This work is an ode to the importance of nature and the close bond between mankind and nature. Through characterization of the speaker, meter, personification, and diction, Wordsworth creates a feeling a solitary bliss with nature.

The plot of this poem, on the surface, is simple, depicting the poet's aimless wandering and his discovery of a field of daffodils by a lake, the memory of which pleases him and comforts him when he is lonely or bored. The first line of the poem, metaphorically compares the speaker to a cloud: "I wandered lonely as a cloud" (line 1). The idea that the cloud is described as "lonely" implies that aspects of nature are solitary beings, and therefore it is suggested that the speaker is alone. The comparison to a cloud gives the reader the impression that the speaker's spirit is unbounded and light-hearted, just as a cloud is a light-weight, free-flowing image. The gender of the speaker is never clearly identified, however, the poem is written in the first-person, which puts the author in the place of the speaker, indicating that the speaker is a man. The images of solitude, and the idea that the speaker/author has made this poem personal through the use of the personal pronoun "I," alludes to the idea that man's experience with nature is a personal phenomena, that differs depending on the individual.

The four six-line stanzas of this poem follow a quatrain-couplet rhyme scheme: ABABCC. Each line is metered in iambic tetrameter. This particular rhyme scheme, with the two last lines of each stanza rhyming, gives the poem a joyful rhythm, which mirrors the feeling of the speaker. The rhyme scheme and structured rhythm also gives the poem a sing-song sound, like a nursery rhyme that a mother would recite to her children to comfort them, indicating that the speaker's experience with nature is an experience of comfort and bliss.

Wordsworth uses reverse personification to create the idea of inherent unity between man and nature. The speaker is compared to a natural object, a cloud ("I wandered lonely as a cloud/ That floats on high o'er vales and hills" (lines 1-2)), while the daffodils are personified as humans: "When all at once I saw a crowd/ A host of golden daffodils" (lines 3-4). The words "crowd" and "host" are typically used to describe a group of people, not flowers, which are usually described with a word like "bundle." These descriptions contrast with the descriptions of solitude that describe the speaker. This reverse personification indicates that while a person may feel alone and isolated, one can find unity and companionship with the beauty of nature.

Diction is a valuable component to the meaning of this poem. Clearly, the speaker values the rewards of nature above material possessions. "What wealth the show to me had brought" (line 18). The word "wealth" in this instance, is not a measure of material gain, but rather a measure of positive emotion that results from simply the memory of the daffodils.

Through specific word choice, Wordsworth gives the reader a sense of fulfillment, alluding to the fact that nature is an essential aspect of a person's life. "In vacant or in pensive mood/ They flash upon that inward eye [...]And then my heart with pleasure fills" (lines 19-22). Typically a person's mood is not describes as "vacant." The use of this word, meaning empty, empasizes the fulfillment that the speaker finds in nature.

Wordsworth also emphasizes the power of vision, over the power of thought. The "flash upon the inward eye" is Wordsworth's way of describing a memory. Typically, memory is associated with the mind, not with vision. This description places more value on natural beauty over human creations that result from complex thought processes. This idea is shown previously in the line, "I gazed-and gazed-but little thought" (line 17). The dashes slightly break the rhythm of the poem to emphasis the healing powers of the sight of natural beauty.

Wordsworth uses an exaggeration in the second stanza to imply the accessibility of nature to everyone, not just to himself. "Continuous as the stars that shine/ And twinkle on the milky way/They stretched in a never-ending line" (lines 7-9). Here, the field of daffodils is compared to ideas of infinity to express the ubiquitous presence of the beauty and healing effects of nature if one chooses to embrace them.

Through the use of literary techniques, characterization of the speaker, and rhyme scheme, Wordsworth creates a work to honor the healing powers of nature.

This poem made me feel very calm and subdued. There were no auditory details mentioned, which helped to create a serene picture. In fact, all sensory details, other than visual details, are omitted from this poem, causing the reader to pay attention to the visual aspects of nature. I think that through this poem, Wordsworth was trying to translate to the readers of this poem his discovery that more joy can be found in the simple, untouched aspects of nature over the material gains that come with money and material wants. I also think that Wordsworth is implying that people have become blind to the beauty found just outside the door, which is why he focused so intently on visual details. I actually went outside after reading this poem, which shows, to some extent, the power this poem had over me to enjoy fulfillment away from the technical, electronic based world in which we live.