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Analysis Of James Joyce 's The Artist As A Young Man

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INTRODUCTION
APortrait of the artist as a young man was the first novel of James Joyce. The novel talks about the religious and spiritual awakening of the protagonist. The narrative technique of the novel keeps the reader close to Stephen’s psyche. Even though the novel is not written in first person style, the author constantly takes us into his mind and keeps us aware of the mental changes taking place in Stephen. Stephen’s rise of consciousness can be linked with his intellectual growth which is reflected upon his thoughts and actions. Joyce portrays the growth of Stephen’s consciousness through the gradual evolution of his thought process. This evolution can be understood by analyzing three different stages of his life
CHAPTER 1

The narrative of the novel reflects the various stages of Stephen’s intellectual development by imitating the childlike simplicity of his earliest memories and by articulating his artistic awakening. Joyce takes us directly to Stephen’s interior world through the use of stream of consciousness. The book begins by describing Stephen’s experience as a baby, which represents the thoughts of an infant.
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Joyce begins the novel with Stephen’s earliest memories, by making considerable use of this stream of consciousness technique. The workings of Stephen’s mind are produced by showing

how circumstances in the action evokes the thought process. The evolution of Stephen and his sensibilities are responses to these moments. By understanding the

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