Search for kinship in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Joyce At the heart of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce yes finds Stephen Dedalus, a sensitive young man concerned with discovering his purpose in life. Convinced that his lack of kinship or community with others is a flaw he must correct, Stephen, who is modeled on Joyce, strives to fully realize himself by attempting to create a forced affinity with others. He tries many methods in hopes of achieving this sense of belonging, including visiting prostitutes and almost joining the clergy. However, it is only when Stephen realizes, as Joyce did, that his true calling is that of an artist, that he frees himself from his relentless self-imposed pressure to force connections with others and embraces the fact that he, as an artist, he is fully realized only when he is alone. Stephen is painfully aware of his difficulties relating to others from the beginning: the other kids at his first school make fun of him about his name and his family; his body feels "small and weak" among those of the other kids on the soccer field; is pushed into a ditch. (Joyce, 246) Stephen often seems to mentally separate from himself and observe himself from outside the confines of the Earth; writes a progression of "himself and where he was" which reads "Stephen Dedalus...Class of the Elements...Clongowes Wood College...Sallins...County Kildare...Ireland...Europe...The World...The Universe". (Joyce, 255) Although Stephen demonstrates with this list that he is all too aware of himself and his technical place in the universe, his need to consolidate this awareness to himself reveals his uncertainties about how he relates to what surrounds. "With a sudden movement he bowed his head... in the middle of the paper... dominion and power of his soul, like the great craftsman whose name he bore, a living thing, new and slender and beautiful, impalpable, imperishable". (Joyce, 433) Stephen is now fully capable of creating from within himself, without depending on others to feel complete. This is accentuated by Joyce's description of the beach scene: "He was alone. He was unheard, happy, and close to the wild heart of life." (Joyce, 433) The artist Stephen is alone and needs to be, not to search in vain for company which, even if obtained, could only drag him out of his newfound freedom. This realization of self-actualization and self-control is the single defining point in Stephen's education; it is the brushstroke that completes the "Portrait of the artist as a young man". Works Cited: Joyce, James. A portrait of the artist as a young man. New York: New American Library, 1991.