JJ Strikes Again - Postpone-age

[iprince]

I love James Joyce, I really do, but he simply must stop taking up so much time.

James Joyce Essay on Thursday, bunch of tests tomorrow. Lots of homework tonight. Plus our mouse broke, so I'm...erm...struggling XD

This, the planned "naga bebe" thingy is being postponed until the weekend. My apologies, loves.

[FlyingPanther]

No problems Mem, I totally understand school coming before this stuff <3 I have a bunch of essays and book reading to do myself >.>;

[silverdust]

Pshaw, SD's supposed to be working on her already overdue Philosophy homework right now

*hugs* Good luck Mem! No need for apologies ;D

[iprince]

Wrote mah essay! YAY!

Or rather...damnblastbuggerhellwithcheeseonit.

My brain needs to stop latching onto part of a question and forming it's own interpretations.

[iprince]

Oh, glee! It's saves on this computer! XD

Discuss the ideas developed by the test creator about and individual’s attempt to reconcile the desire to act independently with the need to for security.

Identity as a Refusal to Conform



Conformity is that which stifles the spirit and crushes identity. It disallows one to grow and change and become as they would if they were free from restraints, prejudices, and the ideals of society. To become an individual means to sacrifice; to sacrifice popularity, the ability to integrate with society and the connection one may have with others. It is to sacrifice physical security for the security of self, as an identity, and to achieve independence by isolating one’s self from the ideals and limitations of society, nationalism, religion, and culture. In the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce, Stephen Dedalus, the main character, goes through many transformations in order to achieve identity, but isolating himself from society, and integrating himself into extreme ideals of a single aspect of his culture, until, finally, these ideas merge as he separates himself from all his restraints. He forces himself to recognize that he is being held back by conformity of his nation, religion, and family, and is then capable of detaching himself from all of them. In order to achieve a true identity and independence, and still retain personal security, one must be willing to recognize societal restraints and refuse to conform to them.

Family is a very personal aspect of identity, one learns the expectations of society, how one should behave in situations, and what is and is not acceptable from family. One learns who they are, who they should be, and who they may yet become through family. Family is something one is expected to conform to, perhaps not wholly, but the ideals and actions of a family will squirm their way into one’s subconscious and effect who one is. One cannot be completely and fully independent while succumbing to the wills and wiles of lineage. Stephen begins life heavily attached to his family. His mother is important to him, and he is very close to her in the beginning of his story. He states, on the very first page, that she smells pleasant, and later on continues to think fondly of her. He misses her during his time at school and desires to write home to her, requesting she retrieve him and bring him back to be with his family, he remembers her vividly, and describes the day he left for Clongowes, refusing to see that she was crying because such a thing would hurt. He even spends every penny earned from his essay competition on his family in hopes of healing the rift that has grown between them over politics and religion. Nevertheless he slowly grows apart from his family, becoming embittered and embarrassed by his father’s drunkenness when they attend the auction, his foolish behavior and his flirtation with women. During his time of piety, Stephen is agitated by his mother, snarling as she sneezed at the table. His love for his family is slowly lost until he states,”…I no longer share the one blood with [my mother and siblings] but stood to them rather in the mystical kinship of fosterage, fosterson and fosterbrother.” No longer close enough to be considered blood, but merely a group of people whom he resides with and who supplies him with food, clothing, and shelter when required. At the end of the book he even refuses to attend Easter Mass, going against his once beloved mother’s wishes. His friend Cranly attempts to get him to go, stating that a mother’s love is not something to be discarded and considered trivial and useless, but Stephen continues to refuse. He has lost his need for his family’s acceptance, thus gaining independence from them. Although family offers its own form of security, it is an oppressing security, which forces one to bend to the wills and ideals of others. Ideals that did not suit Stephen’s need or the identity he would develop. Family informs the relative that religion and nationality are what is Needed, when both keep Stephen from achieving his identity. Family is a hard conformity to overcome, but it is imperative that Stephen achieved this, for he would otherwise not have been able to achieve his own independence and security in that what he is doing, and who he is, is right.

Nationality is a conformity few refuse to recognize, being Irish, or Canadian, or American, or Pakistanian is who one is, this is their identity, their culture, their language. Why? Because they refuse to admit that one can reject their culture and become Themselves. One must recognize that nationality is, in itself, a societal restraint, perhaps the most prominent societal restraint. Do not all Canadians and Americans (those who are Canadian and American in lineage, not merely in nationality, as Anglo-Saxon descendants), with the means to purchase such an object, watch television? Tinker on the computer? Wear pants? This is expected from society, thus they conform to it. Stephen’s national identity, that he is Irish, is something he keeps even once he achieve his security and independence in his identity, but he does not allow the fact that he Irish become who he is. He is Stephen Dedalus, artist, young man, intellectual, aesthetic, who happens to be Irish as well. He is not Stephen Dedalus the Irishman. Stephen has a very weak sense of nationality, in that he pays little attention to the political goings on (such as with Parnell’s death, he is ultimately personally unaffected by this). In the beginning of the book, when he still relies heavily on his family’s influence, Stephen does keep some love of Ireland in him, portrayed best, perhaps, by his desire for a green rose to represent him during the math competition. Green is a color that is often used as a representative of Ireland, being one third of their flag, the color of the clover (which they have instead of grass, a very prominent piece of national individualism), and various other Irish symbols. His sense of nationalism does not last long though, as he neither understands nor desires to understand the state of Ireland’s political and religious turmoil, very little of this is mentioned in his thoughts, and, near the end of the book, he argues profusely with Davin and Cranly about his lack of desire for nationalism. “Ireland,” he states,” is the sow that eats her farrow.” A disgusting, harmful thing to be avoided. Ireland kills its people with its turmoil and indecisiveness, and Stephen Dedalus wants no part in that conflict. It is restricting on his artistic nature,” When a man’s soul is born in this country nets are flung at it to keep it from flight. You speak to me of nationality, language, religion. I will try to fly by those nets.” Stephen refuses to allow himself to be held back by the ideals of his country, extracting himself from their conformities to develop individuality, isolating himself from his kinsman. This is difficult and dangerous by sacrifices must be made in order for him to achieve his identity and independence. By refusing nationalism wholly and completely, he is then able to achieve security in that his country will never overcome his identity.


Religion has always been a heavily influential factor in Ireland, as the cause of many great rifts between nations and individuals. In order to truly become an individual, one must be able to remove one’s self from this strongly religious aspect of the culture. Stephen’s desire for security becomes a physical once after listening to the sermons on hell. He fears for his soul in the afterlife, and becomes truly frightened over the thought of ‘living’ an eternity in pain. Conforming to religion becomes something he believes he must do in order to achieve personal security. Through this he also gains a form of independence, in that he isolates himself from society, losing himself, instead, in his piety. He tortures the senses, becomes a pawn to religion and priesthood, refusing to partake in any pleasures. He forces himself to smell things his nose cannot stand, to walk and sleep stiffly and uncomfortably, to eat only that which repulses him, and to not look into the eyes of a woman. His earlier sins, sins of the flesh (his visits to the prostitutes), gluttony, and sloth, become the driving force of his repentance. Stephen will do whatever he can to avoid hell. But this is not his identity, and he comes to realize this. He may have physical security, but that is not what he needs in order to achieve security in identity. Nor is he happy, and happiness is in itself a form of security. A security from the displeasures and hardships of the world. Stephen is reminded of his namesake, Dedalus, that he needs freedom from the oppressive conformities of society, and freedom to express himself in art. He cannot achieve this through his piety. The book itself becomes bland and dry during Stephen’s repentance, and Stephen is not longer capable of thinking with the same virility, the same creative air, as he once was. Eventually Stephen looks upon the form of a young girl and sees that she is beautiful. His creative thoughts bubble up in his mind and he describes her in a semblance of poetry; her legs slender as a cranes, her skirts plaited like a dove’s tail, breast soft and downy as a grey dove’s. All birds. All aspects of the freedom he required in order to become Self. An individual with an identity not created by the conformities of society. Stephen realizes that his calling is art, not religious piety, nor a life filled with sin and dubious sexual encounters. “Yes! Yes” he says,” I will create proudly from the freedom of my mind, as the great artificer whose name I bear, a living thing, new, soaring, and beautiful…” Stephen is asked if he is willing to accept a vocation and become a priest; he replies that he “will not serve.” Later in the book he expands on this to state “I will not serve that in which I do not believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church. And I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely and as wholly as I can, using only the arms which I will allow myself to use, silence, exile, and cunning.” Through this, Stephen states his refusal to conform, and his ability to achieve identity, and the security of that identity, as well as independence from family, nation, and religion. He becomes himself, as he was meant to be, without any restrictions on his soul.

To achieve personal security, that is, the security of identity, thought, and self, and reconcile it with the independence, one must be willing to extract one’s self from all things that restrain and hold back. It is imperative that one does not allow one’s self to conform to nationality, language, religion, or family, but to develop into a person on their own. In order to act independently, without societal restraints, one must leave and isolate themselves from the familiar and gain security in one’s individuality. One must believe that they will keep that individuality, and that said individuality is right. That this is the only way to achieve that which one needs. Stephen’s call to art is his ultimate goal, and through his slow process of isolating himself from others, and his extraction from societal goals, he achieves the right and ability to become an artist. He allows his identity to develop, and creates security in who he is, acting independently against what his family and society request of him, to become himself. Art is Stephen’s ultimate security, which drives him to independence, and releases him from the nets of society’s oppression.


Our computers all died, so there was...time-loss and major rushage. As usual, I completely ignored the correctness-of my mechanics. Bell rang while I was editting. Damnblastandbugger.

<_<;;

Formative essay. Not worth diddly squat, but...grah.

x.X;;

I'm happy with my quote-memorization, though.

[silverdust]

Bazillion kudos to zee Mem ;D o.O How can you manage to memorize all those quotes...I always have to do quotage from the book, if any at all >.>