Friday, January 30, 2015

Poetry in motion

In the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, we see Stephen Dedalus wanting to be an artist. He wants to write poetry and be different (or even superior) than his peers. The first time we see him write poetry was when he was a younger boy. He sits down, writes a perfect precise heading for his poem, and then... He write the poem how he thinks it should be written. He doesn't really write from the heart at all, he tries to fufill this preconceived  notion of what poetry should be instead of what it actually is. I think this is kind of odd since Stephen at this point is trying to be different than the other people his age (for example when he is at the party and sits in a corner instead of actually socializing). 

As Stephen goes on throughout the novel, he begins to come of age and tries to find himself while struggling with wether he should be the artist he wants to be, or follow the church (which is what his family and friends are basically pressuring him to do). 

Later in the novel he has a vision and with this he decides to be an artist. He passes out and when he wakes up he writes a poem. I'm sure he has written more poetry between the first poem he wrote at the beginning of the novel and this one. Although we didn't see any of that other poetry I'm pretty sure this poem was the first one that was truly an authentic poem. The poem he wrote was very real, he didn't try to force this poem out, he didn't try to fit in with this preconceived notion of poetry he had prior to this. 

I think this moment in the novel is the real coming of age moment. He really delves  deep into himself and finds this poem. He really tries to write it himself rather than trying to write something he thinks he should be writing. This is an important point in the novel and I think that this is Stephen truly becoming a real artist, the moment I've been waiting for throughout the whole book. 

6 comments:

  1. I agree completely that this is the true Stephen Dedalus the Artist. But, I am not sure if we could classify this as his his coming of age "moment." I feel that Stephen has many moments in the book that could be classified as coming of age such as his transition from Chapter 3 to Chapter 4 where he goes from being a perv to a monk, when he decides to exile himself to Paris and leave Ireland to focus on being the Artist, even back to chapter 1 when he goes to the Rector to complain. All of these are coming to age moments, and I would argue that they can all be weighed as equal. If there is a coming of age aspect to Stephen Dedalus' life, it is this book. The journey we see him take defines Stephen as a person, thereby defining his purpose in life.

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  2. I also must disagree that this doesn't mark the true point of coming of age but is rather another point in a set of moments indicating maturity and growth. It is interesting that no other poems are included in the novel between the two and I think this allows for a much harsher contrast/comparison between the first and this one. A transition is clearly evident as he goes from a mimic to an individual. Good job for noticing that!

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  3. I think this poem is in fact a significant moment of development for Stephen's identity as an artist more so than it is for his actual self-development. I think his own growing up happened gradually throughout the novel leading up to this point, and this scene is a snapshot that captures a pivotal moment in his artistic career where his inspiration becomes truly organic.

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  4. I thought that this poem was a major step in Stephen figuring out who he is as an artist, but I don't think it was that tipping point of coming of age. I think he still has some stuff to work out. However this poem doe mark a moment where Stephen embraces his individuality and becomes more mature which is essential for coming of age

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  5. I'm not sure it's fair to say that Stephen actively "wants to" be different from his peers--it's presented in the novel as more of a gradual discovery of the way things are, and he comes to view that as a good thing. In the first chapter, though, it feels like being outside of a crowd, and it leads to loneliness. By the second chapter, he starts to redefine that sense of apartness through the lens of romantic literature like _Monte Cristo_ and Byron's poetry--in this light, it seems like a good and special thing, and maybe does lead to private thoughts of superiority (none of which he ever is seen acting on or expressing aloud).

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  6. I also (like Alyson) picked up on notes of superiority from Stephen's train of thought, especially during the party. It's hard to differentiate between the notes that came from the writing itself (because "frivolous" and like terms are pretty blatantly condescending) and which notes are from our own ("we" being my generation and peer group) tendency to see an "artist" as a superior being. I think Alyson is right, though, that there is definitely a sense of Stephen's claim to his own mystique, and that this marks a definite change and development in his coming-of-age process.

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