Abstract

Exile – whether psychological or physical – seems an unlikely state to find community and identity. Yet in two such works, a diary and a novel, the various stages of exile that the authors undergo create a sense of community more binding than the communities these authors have been rejected from. As I will examine in Carolina Maria de Jesus’ diary of her life in a Brazilian “Favela” portrayed in Child of the Dark, and then in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man-his autobiographical novel about trying to find a place for himself in early 20th century Dublin, exile can often help an isolated individual to discover fulfillment in various marginalized states. As these two authors also show, Exile is a state rich in diversity, and because of it, rich in possibility.