Abstract
An exploration of the similar characteristics and personalities of Stephen Dedalus and Holden Caulfield. The writer shows that this similarity is not just in terms of the situations and incidents that occur in their respective novels, but also in the way both personalities are characterized. Both of these characters have the same outlook on life, the same voice and style, and the same attitude or temperament. Because of the authors' ability to portray characters so clearly, it is possible to draw some significant comparisons between the two protagonists.

From the Paper
"Neither Stephen Dedalus nor Holden Caulfield know exactly what to do with themselves in their respective futures, and both are extremely unsatisfied with their present circumstances. The only major difference between their characters is that although each of them are faced with similar problems and challenges, their reactions to these challenges vary significantly. This may be due to external circumstances, however, and not because of basic differences in the characters themselves."

Tags:style, voice, outlook, challenge, literature

Abstract
The paper contrasts different critics' approaches to analyzing the book and its protagonist. The paper works its way through Stephen's life, at each stage offering the opinions of contrasting critics and reviewers of the book, such as Walton A. Litz, John V. Kelleher and Robert Adams. The paper also analyzes the novel's structure, again comparing different critics' opinions, in this case Harry Levin's division of the book into three sections with William T. Noon's separation of the book into five parts, along the lines of Joyce's five chapters. Finally, the paper contrasts Joyce's style and structure with Stephen's aesthetic theory: Stephen's destiny seeks wholeness, his personality desires harmony, and Joyce strives for clarity. In conclusion, the writer speculates that if Thomas Aquinas was alive in 1914, he probably would have enjoyed meeting James Joyce.

From the Paper
"Another turning point for Stephen's development occurs during his studying of the Litany of the Blessed Virgin. Stephen reads the words that he has read many times, but this time he examines the words for their actual meaning (Zimbaro 31). When Stephen begins to evaluate words for their meaning, he opens up a whole new world of symbolism. The repeated use of words like "dark," "cold," "pale," and "strange" to describe Clongowes Wood College represents Stephen's true feelings. Stephen even recalls words from his past, like the childhood poem "O, the wild rose blossoms/ On the little green place" (Joyce 19), and brings them into his world of imagery: "Perhaps a wild rose might be like those colours and he remembered the song about the wild rose blossoms on the little green place. But you could not have a green rose. But perhaps somewhere in the world you could" (Joyce 24). Stephen's imagination allows him to deal with reality in a way that he can accept. Words and symbolism become the key to all of Stephen's experiences. For example, when Father Dolan hits Stephen with the pandybat, the words "hot," "burning," "stinging," "tingling," "crumpled," "flaming," "livid," "scalding," "maimed," "quivering," "fierce," and "maddening" all occur in less than half a page (Adams 235)."

Tags:Litz, Kelleher, Adams, structure, Levin, Noon, destiny

Abstract
The paper analyzes Gustave Flaubert's Emma and James Joyce's Stephen and compares their respective searches for their own culture and identity. The paper highlights how Emma and Stephen have both found their paths to go down and have, in a sense, estranged themselves from society. The paper notes many similarities and differences between these two characters.

From the Paper
"In Gustave Flaubert's 1856 novel entitled Madame Bovary, the heroine, Emma, is a beautiful, young wife of a country doctor. She is disillusioned with life and, more simply put, bored with it. She is able to escape her life through a series of affairs. Flaubert exposes the flaws of Emma's character and the hypocrisy of bourgeois living in a stilted society. When the book was published, it caused such a stir for being obscene. It was attacked by prosecutors when it was first serialized in La revue de Paris. The book is considered one of the most important books of Realism and some will even suggest that it is one of the most influential novels ever written."

Tags:identity, reality, morals, religion

Abstract
An examination of the main character in James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist" as a Young Man. The author examines the character's loyalties to Catholicism and Irish nationalism.

From the Paper
"The character of Stephen Dedalus in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is forged in the twin fires of Catholicism and Irish nationalism but he nonetheless manages to elude the dogma of both. Church and politics are, in some respects, paradoxically intertwined in Stephen's childhood experience and he struggles to separate them and simultaneously separate himself from them. While he declines the priesthood and refuses the sacraments, it is arguable that Stephen remains a Catholic at some inner level. However, his antipathy toward politics in general and the nationalist cause in particular, can be traced throughout the novel as it becomes progressively more pronounced and caustic."

Tags:catholic, ireland

Abstract
Stephen Dedalus, the hero in "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man" by James Joyce, is very similar to Felicitas Maria Taylor, the heroine in "The Company of Women" by Mary Gordon. The paper explores these novels which shows how the protagonists in both track their journey from adolescence into adulthood. This paper explores the characters of Stephen Dedalus and Felicitas Taylor in terms of how they cope with their teenage years and how their experiences and encounters influence how they turn out as adults.

From the Paper
"Prior to undertaking an in-depth look into the nature of these two main characters of their respective books, it is important to provide a summary of the story each character is involved in and, thus, shaped by. "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" relates the adventures of Stephen Dedalus, growing up in Ireland towards the close of the 1800s. He eventually decides to throw off all his social, familial, and religious restrictions to live a life dedicated to writing (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/portraitartist/summary.html). Each chapter reflects the advancing, internal conflict Stephen experiences in maturing to adulthood (http://www.geocities.com/nickdanger74/joyce1.html)."

Tags:maturity, adult, life, experience, character, analysis

Abstract
The paper explores how, through deep analogy and metaphor, James Joyce allegorizes a paternal relationship between Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom in his novel, "Ulysses". It shows that, strained by both of their insecurities, Dedalus and Bloom never bathe in the warm glory of a true father-son relationship. The paper discusses how throughout "Ulysses", Joyce presents, through his characters and to his readers, the question: What is love? More importantly, are humans capable of attaining and expressing love? It shows that with a series of relationships between son and mother, son and father, husband and wife, friend and friend, country and citizen, colony and "mother" country, Joyce demonstrates the simultaneous longing for and failure of human affection.

From the Paper
"Bloom at his most pathetic woos Stephen Dedalus, even idolizes him. Continually deferring to his intellectualism and multilingualism, Bloom symbolically kisses Stephen's behind. They urinate together and the slightly compulsive and neat Bloom waves off Stephen's lack of concern for hygiene to the necessities of creative energy. Creative energy is one of the major things Bloom finds compelling about the younger Dedalus. Bloom offers Dedalus the space of silence with which to cultivate his thoughts, just as Bloom is concerned with delineating, describing, and dissecting every move. Ironically, Bloom's analyzes seem scientific even as they lack empiricism. His attempt to reduce life to formulas is in direct contrast to Dedalus's attempt to unify life with poetic, sensual ties. The two opposites attract."

Tags:Proteus, Sandymount, Strand, Kevin, Egan, Telemachus, Homer, Odyssey, Mr., Deasy

Abstract
This paper explains that the dialogue quoted in the paper from James Joyce's "Ulysses", between Mr. Deasy and Stephen Dedalus, illustrates the manner in which two distinct characters of the novel conceptualize the impact of history upon identity. The author points out that, as the dialogue of these two characters shifts between two extremes, Stephen serves to contrast the views personified in Deasy. The paper suggests that, whereas Deasy constructs an inaccurate world history infused with religious certainty upon which to construct his identity, Stephen discovers only abstractions, which fail to define him. The paper states that the reference to Parnell concludes Deasy's comments on the dangers of women, which projects this theme of the novel that is expressed in the central conflict of another character in the novel, Bloom.

From the Paper
"Living without Deasy's reconstructed history, Stephen is unable to find any certainty by which to define himself. "[I]n this episode Stephen moves from a questioning of the veracity and solidity of world history to similar questions about his own personal history, oscillating between a realization that the past is real and inescapable ("And yet it was in some way") and a desire to escape the past his memory has fabled." Stephen's constant questioning of the nature of history sets him up in opposition to Deasy's convenient rationalizations, yet leaves him equally unable to actualize himself."

Tags:reconstruction, women

Abstract
This paper examines James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" as it attempts to answer the question of why the young Stephen Dedalus, the book's protagonist, abandons religion. It traces Stephen's development, which is influenced strongly by his notion of his own individuality and the tension between this individuality and the communal nature of Catholicism.

From the Paper
"James Joyce's semi-autobiographical work, "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", chronicles the religious, sexual, and ideological development of its troubled and sensitive protagonist, Stephen Dedalus. Stephen is presented as a very detached, brooding youth who is perpetually troubled by the need to understand the past and constantly worried about the future, while desperately clinging to the sensory experiences of his present. The story's climax, in fact, is reached when Stephen must make the ultimate decision about his future, deciding whether to devote his life to God or to himself. Through his refusal "to serve" God (as well as country, as we later discover), Stephen awakens his artistic conscience, discarding the security of well-formed and established ideologies to embrace the uncertainties of the world of experience and sin that will serve as the raw substance of his art. His refusal to enter the priesthood, to serve, is a reclamation of his independence and will, a decision colored by his awareness of his individuality. The decision is extremely difficult for Stephen, who must finally face what he's sensed throughout his life; that while individuality may be essential to the artist, it is also alienating."

Tags:Catholicism, development, Dublin, individuality, maturation

Abstract
This essay depicts Joyce's rejection of religious dogmas in favor of self discovery. It provides much literal supporting evidence for its claim that the main character, Stephen Dedalus must lose his religious shackles in order to truly find himself as a person.

From the Paper
"In his A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce continually and actively seeks to chronicle his protagonist's struggle to discover the truth of life, and his rebellion from politics and religion. It is his struggle to emancipate his mind from the ingrained religious ideals of Catholicism that stifles and frustrates Stephen Dedalus in his quest to "forge" in his soul his own "uncreated conscience." Joyce attempts to argue for the artist's quest for existential truth through many different literary devices; the most important of these being the limited omniscience of the narrator."

Tags:catholic, church, dogma, dubliners, hero, ireland, irish, stephen, ulysses

From the Paper
"In the opening chapters of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce couples the development of Stephen Dedalus as a human being with the development of his skills at language. The character is always surrounded by and fascinated by language and by the act of telling a story, and this is mirrored in the structure of the novel and in the way the language is structured as well. Stephen's interest in language is created as he interacts with the world around him and as he is motivated to explain that world to himself first and then to others. The novel recreates the development of a writer, one who works with words, communicates with language, but also one who understands the world and himself through his fascination with language. In the early chapters, Stephen's sense of language and storytelling remains in its early stages and does not develop to full artistic.."