Joyce’s Evolving Prose and Stephen’s Exile

James Joyce did something absolutely brilliant in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man that

most readers completely miss. He literally evolves the writing itself as his character

grows up. When Stephen Dedalus is a child, Joyce writes in simple sensory fragments.

By university, the prose transforms into dense philosophical passages. You're not just

reading about someone maturing, you're experiencing their consciousness expanding in real

time. Stephen grows up drowning in Catholic guilt and Irish nationalism,

his family falling apart around him. Everyone expects him to become a priest.

But then he has this moment on a beach, watching a girl wade through water,