Analyze Craft and Structure: from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce The following passage is from the opening
chapter of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. The novel follows the main character, Stephen Dedalus, from his time as a small child in Ireland to the time when, as a grown man, he decides to leave Ireland for Paris to become a writer. Read the passage. Then, answer the question(s). (1) The wide playgrounds were swarming with boys. All were shouting and the prefects urged them on with strong cries. The evening air was pale and chilly and after every charge and thud of the footballers the greasy leather orb flew like a heavy bird through the grey light. [Stephen] kept on the fringe of his line, out of sight of his prefect, out of reach of the rude feet, feigning to run now and then. He felt his body small and weak amid the throng of players and his eyes were weak and watery. Rody Kickham was not like that: he would be captain of the third line all the fellows said. (2) Rody Kickham was a decent fellow but Nasty Roche was a stink. Rody Kickham had greaves in his number and a hamper in the refectory. Nasty Roche had big hands. He called the Friday pudding dog-in-the-blanket.... (3) [Stephen] crept about from point to point on the fringe of his line, making little runs now and then. But his hands were bluish with cold. He kept his hands in the side pockets of his belted grey suit. That was a belt round his pocket. And belt was also to give a fellow a belt. One day a fellow said to Cantwell: (4) —I’d give you such a belt in a second. (5) Cantwell had answered: (6) —Go and fight your match. Give Cecil Thunder a belt. I’d like to see you. He’d give you a toe in the rump for yourself. (7) That was not a nice expression. His mother had told him not to speak with the rough boys in the college. Nice mother! The first day in the hall of the castle when she had said goodbye she had put up her veil double to her nose to kiss him: and her nose and eyes were red. But he had pretended not to see that she was going to cry. She was a nice mother but she was not so nice when she cried. And his father had given him two five-shilling pieces for pocket money. And his father had told him if he wanted anything to write home to him and, whatever he did, never to peach on a fellow. Then at the door of the castle the rector had shaken hands with his father and mother, his soutane fluttering in the breeze, and the car had driven off with his father and mother in it. They had cried to him from the car, waving their hands: (8) —Goodbye, Stephen, goodbye! (9) —Goodbye, Stephen, goodbye! (10) He was caught in the whirl of a scrimmage and, fearful of the flashing eyes and muddy boots, bent down to look through the legs. The fellows were struggling and groaning and their legs were rubbing and kicking and stamping. Then Jack Lawton’s yellow boots dodged out the ball and all the other boots and legs ran after. He ran after them a little way and then stopped. It was useless to run on. Soon they would be going home for the holidays. After supper in the study hall he would change the number pasted up inside his desk from seventy-seven to seventy-six.
How does paragraph 7 most contribute to the theme of the passage?
It adds to the theme of family love by showing the main character reacting to his mother.
It adds to the theme of alienation by showing the main character left behind.
It adds to the theme of social conflict by describing the clothes the characters are wearing.
It adds to the theme of tragic contradiction by contrasting what the characters say and what really happens.
