In James’s Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man the portrait is of Stephen Dedalus. He, the protagonist, narrates the novel and through his eyes we see his development from a shy, almost curious boy to a rebellious and independent young man. Stephen seeks a way out of his restraints. In Stephen’s case, these are family, country and religion. Joyce uses symbolism as well as language and imagery to show Stephen's development. In a sense, Portrait of the Artist is a search for identity.
Chapter One contains several first-times for young Stephen Dedalus: he sits at the adult table, he interacts with peers in a new place (Clongowes), he is punished, he seeks justice, and his peers publicly recognize him. Most importantly, Stephen must work out his own problems and finds the courage to do so. In effect, he is hailed as a hero by his peers. When he wins social acceptance by his schoolmates at Clongowes, he does so by acting in isolation, "They made a cradle of their locked hands and hoisted him up among them and carried him along till he struggled to get free.” When he reports Father Dolan to the rector, he defends his name, the symbol of his identity, “It was wrong; it was unfair and cruel: and, as he sat in the refectory, he suffered time after time in memory the same humiliation until he began to wonder whether it might not really be that there was something in his face which made him look like a schemer and he wished he had a little mirror to see. But there could not be; and it was unjust and cruel and unfair.” Stephen finds he must learn to rely on his own inner resources to liberate himself from obstacles.
