Saturday, January 31, 2015
Stephen's Transformation
At the end of the novel we see Stephen transformed. He is in college and pursuing his dreams. He still may be a little narcissistic but that is to be expected of an 18 year old. One of the things a lot of kids in class complained about was the fact that Stephen is very self centered. I think that this is a true statement but I feel many people are forgetting the fact that, for the majority of this novel, Stephen is a child. When you are 14 to 16 you are a very self absorbed person. Most of the time the things that affect your life are directly related to the tiny sphere that you know. It is hard for kids to understand the fact that they are a part of an entire world and it is only due to inexperience. Stephen is quite like this and literally thinks he is the character in a novel. This is only because he has a very active imagination. Kids do things like this all the time but it just took Stephen a little longer to grow out of it. I think that is what is so crucial to see at the end of the novel. That he grew out of it. He is now a young adult who is observing the world, and instead of thinking he is the center of attention, he is merely an observer.
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Stephen does appear rather self-centered, in light of his internal monologues. But as you say, how many adolescents would appear otherwise, were their internal monologues made public? In fact, some might even define coming-of-age as the eventual loss of that self-centeredness, an awareness of self as part of a larger social fabric. One thing I always point out in Stephen's defense is that he doesn't tend to *act* in a self-centered way: even throughout chapter 5, he's "patient" and "calm" when dealing with others, and he seems pretty deferential in conversation, letting others do the talking a lot of the time.
ReplyDeleteThis is kind of related... So there's this graduation speech called "This is Water." It's about (how a liberal arts degree helps step away from) a self absorbed mindset, that our natural setting is to only think about ourselves and how the people are merely obstacles in our path. This all changes with college, this one article argues. I mean, most of time, people associate college with growth or becoming more cultured in my case. And it did just that for Stephen. He recognized his place in the world, while not big or gigantic, he's still special and should do his thing. Sorry if this had little to do with your post, it just reminded me of it:)
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