In the comments box post any questions, observations, and comments still lingering after the student-lead discussions (Friday, October 17). You are evaluated during these discussions and may feel that your contributions during class did not adequately convey your understanding of the novel. If so, post comments.
D: After a strong summary from Hannah B. D-block talked about...
* How determining one's place in the world--in one's religion, one's school, one's country, one's family, one's language--is one of the major themes dealt with in chapter one.
In relation to the issue of finding one's place in the world...
* We talked about the significance of Stephen's conversations with Athy. {This was Lucy F's contribution. }(We talked about Athy's "gossip" (Lucy F's apt word choice) about "smugging" (Ryan O provided the footnote) & the relationship of his name (a town and county in Ireland) to Stephen's strange name. (page 6)
* We talked about the Christmas dinner and the significance of the argument between Dante (loyalty to the Catholic religion) and Mr Casey/Mr Dedalus (loyalty to the Irish cause). (23+)
* We talked about the significance of Stephen's thoughts about Dieu and the names for God (13) which are preceded by Stephen's list of his relationship to "the universe" and by Fleming's rhyme about Stephen's place in the world.
* We talked about the significance Stephen saying "he was going to marry Eileen" (4)
* We talked about the significance of the question "do you kiss your mother?" and of Stephen's thoughts (and sensory impressions) of kissing. (11)
* Near the end I threw out the assertion "For Stephen every relationship is a problem or issue to be questioned and considered; nothing about his identity and his relationship to his social environment seems easy or natural."
* Also, Michael H helped out by digging up a passage in reference to a question I asked--but I can't remember the question. Michael H, do you remember?
* We should think a bit more about these and other moments in relation to what Joyce is suggesting about identity development (bildungsroman) [and artistic development (kunstlerroman)] and the social environment (family, schoolmates, school authority, religion, country, language, etc.)
* Finally, after class I wondered about Joyce's technique of having the narrator present Stephen's inner impressions and associations without explanation (as opposed to objective, fly-on-the-wall descriptions with explanation). Why might Joyce have made this narrative choice? Does the technique itself suggest something about Joyce's view of the nature of the self and identity?
E: After Isabel P's excellent summary E-block talked about...
* Stephen's funeral fantasy (and other imaginings: "green roses") and how this might be related this to his development as an artist (Isabel P);
* How the book is structured by Stephen's sensations and associations not by linear storytelling (this happened, then that, then that);
* How the narrator doesn't stop to explain Stephen's sensations and associations leaving the reader to infer;
* How Joyce seems to want the reader to experience Stephen's sensations and associations as opposed to just reading an explanation of them;
* [I stopped writing notes for the last ten minutes or so, while I tried to direct a quick discussion. I'm not sure what I've left out. I do know that I am missing comments or questions by Sarah J and Allie L. Do you remember what you said?]
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12 comments:
I had a quick thought pertaining to Stephen's "artistic outlook". One passage that I noted while reading chapter 1 was Stephen's inner struggle of whether or not to confront the rector about his situation with Father Dolan. He knew the situation was unjust yet he was too timid to stand up for himself. It took the encouragement of all the other boys to have him even consider defending himself. He then could not decide on whether or not to go through with confessing his dilemma to the rector. "He has to decide. He was coming near the door. If he went on with the fellows he could never go up to the rector because he could not leave the playground for that. And if he went and was pandied all the same all the fellows would make fun and talk about young Dedalus going up to the rector to tell on the prefect of studies." (page 48). It is clear that Stephen is struggling with some self-confidence issues, seeing as he is more concerned with other people's opinions than what he himself believes. In my opinion, this only adds to the over-dramatic characterization of Stephen as an artist.
Alison Randazza
I would just like to note how Stephen seems to draw connections between the colors maroon and green to the politics of his family and of Davitt and Parnell. "The brush the maroon velvet back was for Michael Davitt and the brush with the green velvet back was for Parnell" (3,4).
"...Dante had ripped the green velvet back off the brush that was for Parnell...told him [Stephen] that Parnell was a bad man" (13). It is here that Stephan makes the connection between family politics and true politics. Also saying that "there were two sides in it [politics]: Dante was on one side and his father and Mr. Casey were on the other" (14).
Emily Castro
To begin, I must admit that although I find Joyce's writing to be stylistically intriguing, I was a bit confused at certain points within this Künstlerroman. I did, however, notice a few things that may infer something about Stephen and something about the author's purpose. I observed that the narrator never stops to explain an emotion felt or an image seen by Stephen, but rather continues on with the story leaving Stephen's thoughts and feelings open for interpretation. Although is makes sense to me that the Joyce would do this, because after all, as we discussed in class, the narrator of the story is independent of Stephen Dedalus; so Joyce has the narrator interpret Stephen's emotions and the narrator leaves his rendition of stephen's mind open to our analysis. Interesting.
I also took note of Stephen's uncertainty and indecisiveness. Every thing in Stephen's life seems to be a question of " Should I or shouldn't I?" or "Is that good or is that bad?" or "Is it right or is it wrong?" This speaks to the recurrent theme of identity that we have seen and dealt with so much this year. Stephen is still very young and extremely unsure of himself, and this insecurity prohibits him from confidently making definitive decisions.
Lastly, here are a few motifs that I noticed: water (wet, damp, moist) and it's relation to color (white, gray, black) and temperature (cool, cold, freezing, frigid). Religion (Christianity, Catholicism). Green/maroon velvet brushes.
Alison Randazza
I also would just like to note a quick quote from page 43, "By thinking of things you could understand them." I think that this really shows that Stephen is a developing artist, by showing the reader that Stephen does not simply listen to things, or hear things and just withhold the new information. He wants to understand them to their full meaning, by asking questions like “why” or “how.” He does this whenever he is confronted with another question or situation which he may feel uncomfortable in, such as the situation whether it was right or not to kiss his mother.
In the context of the quote, Stephen is thinking back onto Eileen and the 'Tower of Ivory' and the 'Tower of Gold’ ideas, which represent her long, ivory hands and her long flowing gold hair. At least that is what those two phrases mean to Stephen. This also brings up another concept, where Stephen is not just thinking of things to understand them, but maybe to make a meaning for those things, like he is trying to make meaning for himself.
I think that during that class I made a comment that in chapter one,Stephen seems to experience life through temperatures. With some encouragement from Mr. Cook, I broadened that to the novel seems to focus on how Stephen experiences things through his senses.
After class, I commented that it seems as though Joyce wants us to be confused and disoriented during Stephen's thinking/daydreaming sequences because Stephen may be physically present during these scenes but he is not mentally present and so therefore,neither are we.
When we discussed Stephen's image of his own funeral, it reminded me of the closing of chapter one, where Stephen walks down the hall to tell the rector about his false punishment from Father Dolan. We often imagine our own funerals, and other scenes that pertain to ourselves. In these scenes, we tend to be the subject that is either a hero or the center of attention. I feel like the way Joyce portrays Stephen as he walks down the corridor to tell the rector the story of Father Dolan's lashing his hands relates to the way Stephen pictures him self. Like the funeral situation, Stephen again is the subject that is heroic. Joyce adds that the corridor is filled with paintings of saints and martyrs. I feel like that enhanced the image of Stephen's walk to the rector's office, because it made the reader start to think of past heroes, foreshadowing the scene where Stephen is praised by the other boys for telling on Father Dolan. I feel like all these moments where Stephen is the subject of either death or a heroic action help us to relate to his development as an artist.
On the first page of Joyce’s novel, we immediately witness Stephen identifying with the character in the children’s story his father is telling him. Joyce writes, “He sang that song. That was his song.” We discussed how Stephen’s senses structure the story. However, even before this, I think Joyce does something interesting. The very first thing in the novel is actually a story. Before we realize that Stephen utilizes his senses to interpret everything around him, we are presented with a story that Stephen enjoys and identifies with. I feel that this is the first example where we see art. The story opening with a story is interesting to me, and I think it is Joyce boldly saying that Stephen is an artist and that the novel will continue to frame Stephen as an artist in ways that involve his senses and other things that he identifies with.
It seems to me that I keep going back to the first chapter when I think of Portrait, specifically the Christmas scene that ends very poignantly with the narrator observing, “Stephen, raising his terrorstricken face, saw that his father’s eyes were full of tears.” After a series of revealing and moving arguments from various characters in the novel, it is not their opinions that Stephen seems most affected by, but the reaction of his father that was apparently not very obvious, but meant something to Stephen. Because most of the novel is about identity, part of Stephen finding himself is recognizing those around him who have been what others defined him by for so long. There is a specific time when Stephen himself reflects on his father as a person as opposed to a parent, something I think everyone has trouble discovering. At one point they are walking together and Stephen’s father just goes on about past experiences and how he really has not accomplished all he could or wanted to, and yet he was not doing anything about it. His father was drinking heavily and his stories were boring, not to mention he was openly hitting on the female bartenders. Stephen feels that he must repeat to himself his own identity, but also needs to take strides in saying a poem to himself. Stephen has decided he does not like his father and does not want to become that, and I think that is more painful than seeing a loved one cry. To see his father cry at Christmas dinner struck him deep, but to realize in himself that he did not really like his father as a person seemed to be more damaging than anything else.
Isabel had mentioned the start of Stephen’s development as an artist by his play with colors when it came to the discussion of the war of the roses. Stephen thinks of Green Roses an their potential for beauty. This is among his start of word and sensory play- something that continues through the book. The meaning of color really struck me, reminding me of what color means, and how changing the color changes the perception of something- which is what an artist does.
Silk Screener Andy Warhol would do just that, change colors and perceptions. As an artist, the appearance of our world was changed by his work. the aesthetics of color and composition are critical to our view of the world. Stephen is doing this kind of game at a very young age, showing a natural ‘knack’ for being an artist. He uses sensory play almost explicitly, bringing forth a new dimension to the book, again, forming a developmental start to being an artist.
The ideas of the Daedulus myth also of course bring up connotations of birds, and one instance in Chloe’s post on the “book spanning motif/idea section” perked my attention. She mention a scene at the beginning of the book, wherein Stephen and Dante have words, and it ends with her saying: “—O if not the eagles will come out and pull out his eyes.” Definitely a blatant reference to birds, but this also made me think of another Greek myth as well, that of Prometheus. Prometheus was a titan, doomed for eternity to be chained to a rock and have his body ravaged by eagles, for committing the act of defiance against the gods and giving fire to the mortals. While this may not be a reoccurring motif in the book I think that this one allusion holds a sort of integral poignance to the book. Stephen seems to echo the Prometheus myth, but rather than giving fire to the mortals Stephen is giving his art. It seems to be that Stephen is caught between trying to figure whether his art is his fire or his salvation. In the different sections of the book it seems as though Stephen is puzzling out what his gift is going to bring him, and if whether indulging it would be his fulfillment or his sin. Stephen confront himself to figure out of indulging his gift will keep him chained to his rock, or if it will let him fly free like Daedulus. I haven’t really had the time to puzzle this one out, but I figure that Joyce would never have added this little phrase if it did not have some sort of significance.
To respond to Mr. Cook's comment about Joyce's 'fly-on-the-wall' technique:
I think that Joyce expresses Stephen's thoughts via narrator in a factual manner to emphasize that Stephen is naturally the way he is. Stating details objectively makes them appear to be facts. The style suggests that Stephen's analyses are a natural part of his identity. I also think that one of the skills an artist possesses is the ability to view their own life through the perspective of a narrator. To me Joyce's style indicates that Stephen, an artist, is a fly on the wall (not of a particular room or setting, but of his entire environment...the universe).
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