One of the conflicts which Stephen must face is the class competition between the scholastic teams of York and Lancaster, named after the British royal families involved in the War of the Roses (1445-85). Although the team badges, bearing either a red or white rose, represent two political factions, Stephen is not really concerned with winning the scholastic contest. He is concentrating on a world which might allow the limitless possibilities of "wild rose blossoms." Here, as he will do in future years, Stephen shuns the arbitrary restrictions governing religion and/or politics; he prefers, instead, to re-create (in his mind) a more tolerant world in which he can feel free to express his own wild, creative nature.
In addition to introducing us to Stephen's "differentness" and his feelings of alienation, Joyce is also introducing us to the matter of loyalty — in particular, the matter of Stephen's loyalty to his "mother country," Ireland. The character who most represents Ireland is Stephen's mother, Mary Dedalus, and Stephen's later anxieties about exile from Mother Ireland are foreshadowed here in his thoughts about being exiled from his loving mother while he is at boarding school. Feeling alien and alone, Stephen longs to be "at home [where he can] lay his head on his mother's lap." This longing troubles Stephen, and one night as he waits for sleep, he begins to imaginatively open and close the flaps of his ears, creating a Freudian-like sensation of a "train going into a tunnel." Freud's imagery, not unfamiliar to Joyce, is related not only to the experience of childbirth, but it also is related to the anxiety/release pattern which Stephen is experiencing because of his separation from home. These anxieties increase when Wells asks Stephen about kissing his mother. Once again, unable to understand his feelings of hot guilt, Stephen finds solace in the beauty and precision of words.
One day, while contemplating his loneliness, Stephen begins graphically to establish his own sense of identity by writing in his lesson book, "Stephen Dedalus / Class of Elements / Clongowes Wood College / Sallins / County Kildarel Ireland / Europe / The World / The Universe." This declaration of identity, illustrating his feelings of smallness in an immense world, marks the beginning of Stephen's attempt to consciously arrange the details of his life in his own manner, creatively to establish control, using the power of words in a pattern.
