Friday, November 20, 2009

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Chapter 4)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Terri M.
In chapter four one of Stephen’s brothers uses a rhyme to tell Stephen that the family will be evicted from their place of residence. Evictions have been a theme in the books that we have read this year.
There was one in Invisible Man. Even though the eviction did not happened to the Invisible Man that was a turning point in the book (getting noticed by the Brotherhood). In Translations the Irish people are having their land taken over, which is similar to an eviction.
In Waiting for Godot Vladimir and Estragon to not have a home…maybe they got kicked out. For what ever reason they do not have a home structure.
In Wide Sargasso Sea Antoinette is eventually made to leave her home on the island.
In Jane Eyre, Jane leaves her home with the Reeds. Every book we have read has the main character leaving which just makes me.
It is key that in these book’s of self discovery the protagonist have to leave their home.
As far as “A Portrait…” goes, I think it is important that a rhyme is used to tell Stephen that his family will have to leave their home, but I do not know why.
Does anyone have any ideas?

Katina T said...

Terri! I completely agree with what you have noticed. It's definately a classic trademark in the books we have been reading. As a part of a bildungsroman novel, I think leaving their home is a part of self discovery, as you said before. Taking a character out of their comfort zone is bound to lead them to learn more about themselves. As for using a rhyme within the text to tell Stephen about his family leaving their home, I think the author is trying to transition and differentiate from a normal bildungsroman novel into a kunstlerroman novel. Perhaps this is a clue into how Stephen will not only find himself as a person, but also as an artist. But this is just my guess on the subject, who knows :P

Anonymous said...

ahhah. That sounds probable to me, thanks Katina =D