Sympathetic Stephen?

As we near the midpoint (I think) of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I realize that I've been thinking of Stephen in kind of a harsh way. I've thought of him as kind of this pretentious kid, someone who would fit right in on tumblr with lots of other teenagers who reckon themselves too mature for their age, born in the wrong era, all that good stuff. But I also want to take a step back and really look Stephen in the eye. He is human and only sixteen or so. I think a lot of us have a little arrogance or pride or something of that nature that we tuck into a little corner of our minds and do our best not to show. I think he is at least a little overdramatic, a bit of a drama queen, but we know people who are drama queens who we still enjoy the company of. He seems to be struggling with the financial situation of his family, which he is aware of and affecting his boyhood greatly. One of my friends moved to another state while their brother was in high school, and he was extremely upset by it and, according to my friend, was like a completely different person from the time their parents told them to the time that they moved. I think big events that cause a disruption in people's lives, especially teenagers, are really upsetting and I don't think I personally give Stephen enough credit for the things he's going through.
I was also thinking that Stephen gradually is getting harder and harder for me to sympathize with. When he was at Clongowes, I felt really bad for him for the bullying and just how clueless he seemed of the social dynamics around him. I laughed a little at the dramaticism of the funeral he imagined for himself. I felt bad again as we as readers saw how he was being brushed off by the rector without him realizing. But as he got older, I found it harder to sympathize with him. I thought his biting little sarcastic remarks about Uncle Charles and Simon weren't super cool of him. I thought that his whole "brooding" thing was kind of obnoxious to say the least. But again, I think I have to step back and really take in Stephen's situation, and I have a feeling that as the story progresses, I will have to continue to remind myself to at least try to understand Stephen's viewpoint more, because even though he is growing older and ideally would be getting better, that's not really how life works, and Joyce does an amazing job of portraying this through Stephen. I have realized I not only need to understand and open my eyes to Stephen more, but probably to a lot of people in my life who I don't resonate with or understand very well.