in decline. In these two chapters, the language used by the novelist evokes the level of language reached by Stephen and the mode of narration changes and becomes more direct and at the same time more philosophical than the early passages, structured more as childhood memories in a stream-of-consciousness recollection of one incident or another.
The opening line of the book is a story, a story told to the child Stephen by his father:
Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo. . . (7).
There is a love for language even in this little tale, with the "moocow" th
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