A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Chapter 2, Part 1 Summary & Analysis

Stephen spends the summer at his family’s house in Blackrock, a suburb of Dublin. He spends most of his time with Uncle Charles (actually his great-uncle), who has a penchant for strong, ill-smelling tobacco and minor shoplifting (he lets Stephen grab handfuls of fruit from a local store). After running daily errands each morning, Stephen and Uncle Charles go to the park to meet Mike Flynn, a retired athletic trainer and a friend of Stephen’s father. Mike teaches Stephen running techniques and makes him do laps around the park. Stephen enjoys running, but feels put off by the aging trainer’s appearance. On the way home, he and Uncle Charles usually stop by the chapel to pray.

On Sundays, Stephen, his father, and Uncle Charles go for long walks around the neighborhood. Stephen listens eagerly as the men talk about politics and family, and looks forward to a time when he can truly take part in the world they describe. In the evenings he reads The Count of Monte Christo, imagining himself as the wiser, older count who eventually rebuffs his once-beloved lover, Mercedes.

Stephen and a boy named Aubrey Mills become friends and form an adventurers’ club; they explore and fight imaginary battles. Stephen decides to make his costume very simple, like Napoleon’s. Sometimes they go with the milkman to the cow fields in the summer and the cow yards in the fall – the latter sadden and disgust Stephen.

Aubrey goes to school in the fall, but Stephen does not return to Clongowes: his family has been experiencing financial troubles. He imagines living the pleasant life of the milkman, but his vague sense of ambition does not let him dwell on it. His ambition takes the form of a confused, gloomy restlessness. He wanders around his neighborhood, feeling acutely that he is separated in some way from everyone else, and dreams of finding in the world something that resembles his soul.