Thread Essay: parts in relation to the whole (consonantia)

"Rhythm, said Stephen, is the first formal esthetic relation of part to part in any esthetic whole or of an esthetic whole to its part or parts or of any part to esthetic whole of which it is part." (Joyce 183)

"Having first felt that it is one thing you feel now that it is a thing. You apprehend it as complex, multiple, divisible, separable, made up of its parts, the result of its parts and their sum, harmonious. That is consonatia." (Joyce 189)

Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Dubliners. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004.

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To write this essay you will need to choose one of the threads that Joyce weaves through his novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. We've discussed many threads and there are others we have not had the opportunity to discuss. You might reflect on your group work for ideas when choosing. Post the thread you have chosen in the comment box by class time on Tuesday, November 23.

You will then develop a well-organized essay in which you explain how the thread is significant in the work as a whole. Along the way the essay must deal with the thread's significance in each of the five chapters of the novel. The essay will be 1000+ words, twelve-point font, double spaced. It's due in class on Wednesday, December 1. Check out the "Part to Whole Example Essays".

Notes:

The thread might be something that is physically sensed -- seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched -- in Stephen's world.

The thread might be something -- a person, place, thing, sense -- with associations, connotations, correspondences that Joyce uses suggestively. The something might be used to embody meanings.

The thread might be a set of related somethings -- a set of words associated with birds, a set of words associated with water, a set of words associated with mouths -- that are used suggestively. There are also sets of fathers and sets of women (and language related to women, like a "maiden" moon). And several others sets.

The thread might be physically present in Stephen's world and/or it might be figuratively present in the narrator's language. For example there are literal birds, but there are also people who look like birds, people's whose names are birds, feelings that are described in bird related terms (soaring, swooning), etc. The same can be said of water and fire. Then some of the threads are figurative only -- nets, cages, mazes -- yet they're still threads.

The thread might be a suggestive pair of opposites like dry/damp, light/dark, hot/cold, live/dead, etc.

Instead of being something palpable, the thread might be a concept that is embodied in characters, events, thoughts, dialogue, descriptions, etc.: religion, nationality, language, art, sexuality, body-spirit divide, etc. All of these things are abstract though they are manifest in Stephen's world in concrete ways.

The thread might foreground literal and figurative images that embody (suggest, connote) concepts, or the thread might foreground concepts anchored in literal and figurative images.

So...What is your thread? How is it significant to the work as a whole?