But perhaps somewhere in the world you could” (9). Later, Stephen thinks about the song again and he states “but you could not have a green rose. Roses are seen as beautiful, yet difficult to touch because of their thorns, so the church is seen as a good thing, but it will be hard to overtake. The green land is Ireland, so the song represents the church existing in Ireland. In this children’s song, the rose, which is presumably red, is the church again. The strength of the argument for one side wound not exist if the other side did not exist, though.Ī song that Stephen sings goes, “O, the wild rose blossoms/On the little green place” (3). Therefore, Davitt said that the church comes first, but Parnell said that his country comes first. Davitt and Parnell once worked together, but then Parnell disobeyed God and the church and Davitt did not like it. The properties of red and green are that they are opposites, yet they complement each other, suggesting that these two factions in Ireland do not agree with each other, yet one cannot, and would not, exist without the other. Maroon, a shade of red, is the religious side and green is the political side of the battle. The colors represent the different sides: “the brush with the maroon velvet back was for Michael Davitt and the brush with the green velvet back was for Parnell” (3). In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce outlines the political and religious battle in Ireland using Stephen’s fascination with the colors red and green.
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