A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Religion as Repression Like his protagonist, James Joyce was an Irish Catholic. He was also sent to Clongowes Wood College to board and study as a young boy. In effect the story is in part an autobiography of Joyce's own life up to the age of twenty or so (Kershner 6). In his essay A Portrait as Rebellion Norman Holland states: Because of Portrait's peculiar combination of novel and autobiography, I feel called upon to see Joyce's schoolfellows in two ways at once. They are characters in a novel, bigger than life, and they are real people like me and my school and college pals. (280)