Inner Artist Musings:
When Stephen's epiphany occurs on the beach, the experience liberates him for the first time in the sense that he is no longer confined by what his family and society have imposed on him his entire life. This liberating moment for Stephen allows him to realize that "To merge his life in the common tide of other lives was harder for him than any fasting or prayer, and it was his failure to do this to his own satisfaction which caused in his soul at last a sensation of spiritual dryness together with a growth of doubts and scruples" (157). As Stephen begins to find "His Language," he rids himself of the language he feels was never really his to begin with: "His own consciousness of language was ebbing from his brain and trickling into the very words themselves which set to band and disband themselves in wayward rhythms" (182). He then begins crafting a poem in his mind about ivy: "The ivy whines upon the wall . . ." as the ivy continues up the wall, Stephen notes that it's "yellow ivy" and at one point even "ivory ivy." If green references throughout the novel symbolize Ireland, then here it seems to suggest that Ireland is fading for Stephen as he realizes that he must exile himself from his native country in order to completely transcend as "The Artist."
My point in creating the "Inner Artist" assignment was that, like Stephen, perhaps you too might discover something about yourself throughout the book and the discussions as you wrote in your "Stream of Consciousness" journal etc. that maybe you didn't know before or that you might feel liberated you to share an inner ability that no one else knows? Maybe we all know that you're a singer, but maybe we don't know that you've written your own song, and you want to share a little sample of it with us? Or maybe you simply want to share something that you've discovered about yourself this year that you feel is a minor or major epiphany of sorts. I'm not expecting for you to "Wow" us today, but simply share a part of you that you've never shared before or simply talk about some inner discoveries you've made about yourself as you've passed into this very important phase in your life.
Hopefully that helps! That's all I got!
Mrs. Johnson
