James Joyce, A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man

A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man is not like any book I have ever read.  It is written as a stream of conciousness which is really hard to read and follow but also makes it very unique.  He writes like this to show that Stephen, the main character, is still growing through out the book. Not only in age but also as an artist.  At the end of the book Joyce does something interesting, he switchs from stream of conciousness to writing as journal if it is a journal entry by Stephen. He does this because he wants to show that Stephen has grown and he is ready to speak for himself.