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Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man traces the growth and development of Stephen Dedalus from infancy to young manhood in Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century, and his gradual decision to cast off all his social, national, and religious constraints and live a life devoted to artistic pursuits. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is one of the earliest examples in English literature of a novel that makes …

…stead." The whole novel is a spiritual odyssey written as an attempt to discover Stephen's identity and his place in the universe. Throughout the novel, Stephen tries several alternatives one by one, and he is also subjected to different kinds of orders, familial, national, social, and religious. However none of these alternatives or orders suits him, and that is why he ends up abandoning everything and choosing the hard way by following his own way.