The stream of consciousness novel is a 20th century innovation, which aims to represent the totality of experience through human consciousness. This necessarily means a retreat from the direct representation of social interactions and a reduction of the external world to a mere object of the hero's subjective awareness. Unlike the narrative of objective circumstances, this individual awareness is formless and undramatic and is unable to contribute its own form and order to the novel. This form and order must necessarily be imposed by the novelist, because the impression of a flow of disconnected thoughts, which this type of novel aims to produce, must have an artistic unity, which is an indispensable necessity in every artistic creation. The most important tool used by the stream-of-consciousness novelist to achieve such unity is the employment of a system of symbols, which connects the different threads into an integrated whole and imposes a thematic unity on the unconnected strands of thought. to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" by James Joyce is not the classic stream-of-consciousness novel, as is his "Ulysses" or "Finnegan's Wake", but the system of symbols on which it develops is as important as in the other two novels. Without this system the hero's mind would be a very vague integrator, imposing only a structural unity on the novel and not a strong thematic unity. A symbol can be defined as something that means something else and whose meaning becomes apparent through mental association or tradition. Symbols have a range of references that relate to various levels of human society, from religion and culture to emotions and beliefs. MH Abrams in “A Glossary of Literary Terms” classifies symbols into “conventional” or “public” and “private” or “personal”1. The former have developed in the consciousness of an entire culture across several generations and include symbols such as the Cross, the Rose or the Lamb. The latter are symbols whose associations and meanings are developed by a single author and must be understood exclusively in the context of his work. Symbols can also stand alone or be part of an entire system of related symbols that run throughout the text. Both of these types are very common in stream-of-consciousness novels, and often such novels rely on such symbol systems. For example, Virginia Woolf's “To the Lighthouse” uses lighthouse symbols throughout the novel as a unifying agent, while individual symbols are scattered intermittently throughout. Similarly, Joyce's “Ulysses” uses the myth of Odysseus and his journey as its main symbol. Both types of symbols are also used in “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”. The main symbol is best seen in the most important epiphany of the novel – the one in which Stephen observes a girl wading into the sea at the end of Chapter IV. Here, the main impression that emerges from the description of this girl is that she resembles a bird: "She looked like someone who magic had transformed into the appearance of a strange and beautiful sea bird"2. which pervades the novel from the beginning, and continues to the end, symbolizing what is beautiful and free in Stephen's conscience. Emma, ​​the epitome of his ideal woman, is also like a bird - towards the end of the novel, when he manages to feel sympathy for her, and then describes her as "simple", "strange", and "willful". A bird can also evoke connections of aspiration and a desire to achieve the unattainable – as we see in that wonderful tale of Stephen standing in the library colonnade, looking out at thenumerous birds circling together in the sky, preparing to make their way. go back to where they came from. Their escape makes him think of his plans to fly away over the seas, away from his homeland Ireland, to the continent, to realize his ambition of becoming an artist. The bird-image is also linked to that other great symbolic figure of the novel, from which Stephen Dedalus takes his name. The Daedalus of myth is also a winged figure – “the hawk-like man whose name he bore as he flew out of captivity on wicker-woven wings”3. The very name of Daedalus brings to mind the image of a bird, and also that of art: "Now, at the name of the fabulous craftsman, he seemed to hear the noise of dark waves and to see a winged form flying above the waves and slowly climb the air... a symbol of the artist who forges anew in his laboratory from the lazy matter of the earth a new soaring, impalpable and imperishable being”4. Stephen's alienation from his family, especially his father, results in his search for a father figure, a person who will be his mentor in his search for a calling. This research rests on the mythical Daedalus, who begins to consider his true father, the father of the spirit, not simply of the blood. On the other side there is his biological family, towards whom he found himself "rather in the mystical kinship of foster care, adoptive son and adoptive brother"5. Daedalus, "the great creator", escaping from captivity, becomes a symbol of his own liberation from the captivity of his own nation, language and family, and of a life dedicated to art, to total self-expression. What is implicit in this symbol, but not fully understood by Stephen himself, is that he becomes at that moment, the son of Daedalus, Icarus, who, in the myth, attempted to fly, but not being as wise as his father, he lost his feathers of his wings to the melting heat of the sun and drowned in the sea. He had tried to fly too high, without following his father's advice to follow the middle path – and the question hangs in the balance as to whether Stephen himself is attempting to do the same. Will Stephen be the Daedalus he wishes to be, or is he destined to become another Icarus? Another image becomes a symbol as well-structured as that of the bird in the novel: the symbol of the Rose. We actually come across this image on the very first page of the book – “O, the wild rose blooms / In the little green place”; which the infant Stephen corrupts in his pronunciation in the next line – “O, the green wothe Botheth”6. The meaning of this phrase is made clear much later, when Stephen sits in Clongowes's classroom, looking and reflecting on the rose-shaped badges pinned to the shirts of the boys around him. The red rose is the coat of arms of the House of Lancaster, and the white one is that of the House of York – the two houses of the school, named after the English Wars of the Roses (1453 – 85). Immediately afterwards, unable to do the calculation given to the boys, he starts thinking about all the different colors of roses in addition to those represented in his school's crests – so many beautiful colours: pink, cream, lavender. However, despite the wonderful variety of colors of roses, it is not possible to find a green rose, like the one in the song he sang as a child. Maybe, he also thinks, you can have a green rose if you search the world hard enough! The Green Rose, therefore, becomes a symbol of the unattainable, something that is not found in reality, but which can be realized in the imagination, through art. Furthermore, being linked to the War of the Roses, the green rose can also be linked to the political theme that is so strong in the novel. Green, being the color of Parnell's Home Rule Party, may also refer to the much-offended and also much-admired leader of the Irish people.66.