Book Review On Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man

For my independent reading project, I read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. The book was published in Ireland in 1916. Joyce was born in Dublin in 1882 and his childhood experiences growing up in Ireland under a Catholic upbringing had largely influenced his books, especially Ulysses and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Joyce relates to the main character Stephen quite well.

Stephen Dedalus is the main protagonist in this book. He is intelligent beyond his years and never fit in well amongst his peers. Dedalus is sensitive and things bother him more than they should sometimes. It is a controversial time to live in Ireland as a large political leader his father was in favor of had just died. However, his father’s opinion was not the popular one. As he realizes, they boys take after their fathers and Stephen becomes more of an outcast. Despite the fact that socially he didn’t fit in well, his father also was on the other side of the political argument. Stephen faced a difficult social situation at school, both with the children and the school staff. As Stephen grew older, things eventually got better. He experimented with some things socially that didn’t work well for him, but things do change.