Well, this is it…the final blog post for AP Lit Senior year. I thought it would get easier as I blogged, but that has not been the case whatsoever. In keeping with my big blog question of “Who are the elite?” I had to take a step back from the extremely difficult book that I recently finished: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, in order to try to fit this book with my question, but I think I found it—is there a difference between religious and intellectual elitism?
In the novel, the main character, Stephen Daedalus varies his intellectual interests between carrying out Catholicism and delving deeper into intellectual schooling, leaving his old views of the world behind. After Stephen’s act of impurity at a brothel and mandated return to the Church (through his Jesuit education) to hear a long sermon about hell, he seems to change his ways and understand the damnation he could receive without repenting for his sins. Yet Stephen still does not know whether he is truly sorry for his sins or afraid of hell: “Perhaps, concerned only for his imminent doom, he had not had sincere sorrow for his sin?” (Joyce 147). This quote demonstrates the complexity of Stephen’s intellectual mindset, he switches between completely intellectual, decoding his thoughts and feelings on the subject of his repentance, and very subordinate to the Church, knowing that repenting his sins is the only way he will not go to hell. Even though Stephen does go through this change between his religious life and his strictly intellectual life it seems that he believes that he is more elite than anyone else in either position. During his time in pursuing absolute holiness, Stephen believes that he can come to a point in his life where he rarely sins, and tries to be a perfect child of God. Instead, his intellectual approach to his quest for holiness leaves him wanting more and feeling more elite than others around him, even turning down an opportunity to become a priest. Stephen then transitions to a complete intellectual, strictly devoting his life to his studies and ensuring that he is right on all accounts and in all ways, arguing with anyone who has the guts to try and stand up to Stephen. Stephen has an elitist’s perspective with either of his lenses throughout the book, thus maybe illustrating the notion that it is not who is elite, but who believes that they are elite?
