People often let others help them shape their identity. They identify with habits, religions, political affiliations, and other loyalties of their parents or close friends. Often a person uses a state or a country in which they were born as a part of their identity. Stephen Dedalus, the main character of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, is a curious case in that he lets none of these things be innately part of his identity.

Stephen is very analytical in his dealings in life. He will not let any outside force define him in any way if he does not fully agree with it. He does not relate well to his family, he comes to almost hate the Catholic Church, and he does not even let his Irish nationality fully define him. Stephen isolates himself from everything from every part of his born identity.

Why does Stephen do this? Throughout the novel he seems to be searching for some definition of himself. He analyzes the definition of beauty and or art with school mates and professors, but truly he attempts to define his reasons for dissenting from the church and society. By the end of the novel, Stephen seems to have come to a bit of a realization about his identity , but I do not believe he has found the full definition he is searching for by the time the book ends with his departure from Ireland.

Joyce seems to suggest with his character, Stephen Dedalus, that one can form their own identity separate from birth loyalties and associations. However, he also seems to say that one who attempts to fully escape definitions such as Stephen does, often seems to be defined closely to those defining characteristics. i.e. Stephen does not like the Catholic Church, but is religious in many ways. So can one truly be defined by aspects not given to them at birth?