Brandwajn 1

Mairon Brandwajn

Mrs. Morris

Orange – English 12 H.

23 January 2005

Extra Credit

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce induces human senses to

accentuate Stephen’s artistic awareness. Stephen tunes and organizes his world with his

senses. He sits in the dining hall covering and uncovering his ears, listening to the noise

that “roars like a train at night” (10). This acute imagination for depicting sounds in his

mind demonstrates Stephen’s ability to assimilate sounds with pictures. Also, later on in

the chapter, Stephen associates the roaring train with the coming of Christmas. The train

portrays his unusual way of describing events in his life. Stephen is very sensitive to the

feel of the bed sheets, first freezing cold and then wonderfully warm with heat from his

own body. Joyce differentiates Stephen with most of the other boys, who are all very

similar amongst themselves. With visual keenness, Stephen sees how the red silk badge

on Jack Lawton's shirt looks even redder because Lawton “had a blue sailor top on” (9).

No normal boy other than Stephen would detail how Lawrence’ wearing a blue cap

brings out the red. Like any natural artist, Stephen associates colors at an early stage in

his life. Memories are also very vivid to him: “Dante had two brushes in her press. The

brush with the maroon velvet back was for Michael Davitt and the brush with the green

velvet back was for Parnell” (3). Stephen’s sensitivity and his tendency to behave

differently than the rest of the boys accentuate his artistic awareness.