What do you understand by the term "stream of consciousness" with reference to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce?

Stream of
consciousness is a style of writing that strives to mimic the actual flow of real human thought.
Often, stream of consciousness narratives are messy, lack a logical structure, and/ or flout the
basic rules of grammar, all because human thought generally does not abide by regular writing
rules and conventions. Though stream of consciousness has been used in many different periods
and is still popular today, the technique was especially popular among Modernist authors,
including Virginia Woolf and .

In , Joyce uses a stream
of consciousness narrative very effectively. Throughout the novel, the sophistication of the
prose improves as the , Stephen Dedalus, grows up and matures. Thus, the beginning of the
narrative is written to mirror the simplistic consciousness of a very small child, while the end
of the novel displays the complex thoughts of a highly educated young man. Joyce therefore uses
stream of consciousness because his prose changes style to mirror the different, evolving
consciousnesses of a growing person. Accordingly, it's hardly surprising that the novel is known
for being difficult to read, although it's not quite as challenging as Joyce's next
novel, , which also employs a masterful stream of consciousness
narrative.