Voices in his head

We've brought up how malleable and imprint-able Stephen can seem at times so I decided to write a blog post about these influences and their implications.

The earliest influences we see in Stephen's life seem to be his mother, his father, and Dante. These are all pretty understandable influences for a young boy to be under. These are the people he knows best and that know him best. His mother is a big part of his conscientiousness while Dante and his father serve as moral guides. I'd say that these influences are not grounds to call Stephen impressionable. Naive maybe but not impressionable.

Soon after, we see Stephen's peers and teachers creep into being influences. Most memorably, his attempts to go unnoticed to fit in with his peers, then when the priest dubs him as a sneaky slacker, and finally when his peers convince him to go to rector. We discussed in class whether he acts for others or for himself. Stephen even notes his influence-ability on page 88, listing the demands of the people in his life.

God also becomes an influence in Stephen's life. God is basically a punisher in Stephen's mind. Stephen is very scared of the repercussions of defying God and subsequently adopts a strict regimen of self mortification. Later, God is such a big influence in Stephen's life he considers being a priest. Even after he's stepped away from his religious upbringing to pursue art, God plays a huge role in Stephen's thinking and understanding of the world.

Some interesting things about Stephen's relationships with his influences are:

1. Love is almost completely nonexistent between Stephen and his influences, save for with the women. I'd say that Stephen loves his mother. He listens to Dante and his father and teachers and peers and God but when he's sick in the beginning of the novel, he writes a letter to his mother. He wants her comforting most of all. He is also emotional affected by a number of women throughout the course of the novel. Although it is hard to say if this is actually love, there is definitely more of an emotional attachment to these women. They even inspire his art.

Maybe this is a comment on the gender roles he's observed. I feel like this is reflected in the fact that when he starts his first poem he does so by following the rules he's observed from Byron. Which moves toward my next interesting thing, that being how influencable Stephen does seem.

2. In spite of Stephen's intense desire to be unique, I found him surprisingly impressionable. I think why it was so surprising to me is because he was so mature in other ways but he was still to naive to start living his own life. That's totally understandable when you think about how young he is for the first bit of the novel. Little kids don't really know how life works so they watch other people's lives and imitate. It's totally normal. But having these little kid actions next to his big thoughts is a little disorienting. I'm sure it happens a lot. Everywhere in life you will find the small or weak or unsure submitting to the bigger, stronger, or more popular. However it's odd to have the young big thinker being so easily manipulated by the desire to fit in.

PS. Since I'm finishing this post so far after I started I thought I'd add the idea that Stephen's possible vocation is yet another voice in his head calling to him and telling him what to do.