James Joyce, in his novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, offers an infiltration into a mind deeply perplexing, hidden to the world except through the medium of (often too interpretive) art. Stephen Dedalus, the young man portraying the artist's growth, is an Irishman.
Though not too much narrative is dedicated to the Dedalus family, strength in history and Catholic faith run deeply in this heritage. What is interesting about these components of Irish life is that each piece can be so divided against the other. For example, at the Christmas dinner table, Stephen's family argues the balance of religious piety versus loyalty to Ireland and its political figures. Though Stephen should likely have an opinion on the matter or grow into one as his family would impress upon him, he, as an artist and a maverick, goes into neither.
While on a walk with his father and uncle, the two older men show off their town and reminisce their lives centered in relationships, school, and goofing off typical of a young man of Stephen's upbringing. Stephen realizes that his brain doesn't work this way: "Nothing moved him or spoke to him from the real world unless he heard in it an echo of the infuriated cries within him. He could respond to no earthly or human appeal, dumb and insensible to the call of summer and gladness and companionship, wearied and dejected by his father's voice." Though his parents encourage Stephen to pursue acceptable aspirations, and his mother, traditional to Irish culture, sees Stephen as a god (here is where they might have a little something in common), he generally isolates himself from others and is not concerned with anything but that complies with his unique method of perceiving and processing.
Rather than acquiescing to the pressures of his family and inborn heritage, Stephen finds more of himself in aesthetics and contemplative ideas rather than the physical father and mother, or any other institution for that matter, family, Catholic spirituality, school, etc.
