The Complexity of Language Increases in Proportion to the Protagonist's Development in Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"

The following passage from A Portrait occurs in Chapter 1 of the novel, just after the protagonist Stephen Dedalus begins his schooling. He is walking with a group of his schoolmates, one of whom speaks to another boy, Simon Moonan. Young Stephen hears a speaker's sentence, and his mind immediately picks up on the word "suck", declaring that it is "a queer word" (l.2). Ugly sound - We all know why you speak. You are McGlade's …

…development into a passionate artist : "I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can" (p.269). Works Cited: Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. New York: Penguin Books, 2003 Milesi, Laurent, ed. James Joyce and the Difference of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003 Levin, Harry, James Joyce. A Critical Introduction. 1941. 2nd rev. ed. New York: New Directions, 1960.