The pandying scene from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is, in many ways, fairly typical of a coming-of-age story. A child or young adolescent discovers himself in a situation in which he is in conflict with the adults around him, and the situation resolves traumatically for the child. What is unusual about Stephen's experience is that he refuses to allow Father Dolan, a person of clear authority, to have the last word. By going to the rector and asserting his right to be treated fairly, humanely, and justly, Stephen as an artist-to-be reclaims authority over his own conscience. He emerges from the rector's office in control of his life, no longer a passive recipient of adults' misguided actions.
Stephen is initially singled out from the other boys by Father Dolan because he is different. He asks Stephen, "Why are you not writing like the others?" and though Stephen's teacher explains that he has broken his glasses and been exempted from work, Dolan immediately decides Stephen is a "lazy little schemer" (294). The fact that Stephen wears glasses suggests he is sensitive, intellectual, and physically delicate, he "sees" life differently than others. More imaginative and introspective than his fellow classmates, Stephen already exemplifies the qualities of an artist. It is this uniqueness, symbolized by Stephen's visual abilities (or disabilities), that brings him to Father Dolan's notice. Perhaps Joyce is pointing out that being an artist will always draw the suspicions of those who see life in more simplistic terms; for people like Father Dolan, force and authority are far more important than art and truth.
Though the physical pain caused by the pandy bat is intense, once it fades Stephen becomes increasingly indignant at the injustice of Father Dolan's punishment. He did not deserve it since "the doctor had told him not to read without glasses" (297). "Then to be called a schemer before the class" when Stephen was usually first or second in his studies was "unfair and cruel" (297). It was cruel the way the prefect had paused to steady his hand in order to cause Stephen the greatest pain, unfair that he had been publicly characterized as a schemer, and unjust because he had done nothing wrong.
Prompted by a classmate's remark that "the senate and the Roman people declared that Dedalus had been wrongly punished" (298), Stephen equates his experience with other great acts of injustice throughout history and identifies with those "great persons" who protested injustice; "history was all about those men" (298-9).
To improve one’s understanding of how the narrator changes, one must first be acquainted with the situation: Doodle is born with a heart condition. Therefore, he will not be competent to do what ordinary kids could be capable of. No one anticipated for him to live very long. The reality that Doodle will not be able to do normal activities makes his brother, the narrator, miserable. How or why? The narrator has always sought after a brother whom to play, run, and box with.
Two ancient examples of disobedient actions come from different ages revered for standards that hold today and provide a basis for modern law; the Greek and ancient Roman empires. From the Greeks, we have come to know the story of Socrates as memorialized by Plato, and the Roman age was the time of Perpetua, an early Christian woman. The fate of those individuals is the same – a death sentence handed down by the society they lived in. Although the conclusion of their respective lives is the same, the differences that lie in the reasoning of their death run deeper, with several key factors impacting their individual destiny. As we will see, these factors affect their relationship to the states and time periods they existed.
Humans are never perfect, and their emotions often conflict with their logic. In “The Scarlet Ibis”, the narrator receives a physically disabled brother, Doodle, thus trains Doodle physically so that he could live a normal life. Throughout the story, the narrator’s actions and thoughts reveals his true personalities to the audience as he slowly narrates the story of himself and his scarlet ibis, Doodle, whose existence he dreaded. In the story written by James Hurst, pride, love, and cruelty, these conflicting character traits all exists in Doodle’s brother. And the most severe of all, pride.
Justice is generally thought to be part of one system; equally affecting all involved. We define justice as being fair or reasonable. The complications fall into the mix when an act of heroism occurs or morals are written or when fear becomes to great a force. These complications lead to the division of justice onto levels. In Aeschylus’ Oresteia and Plato’s Republic and Apology, both Plato and Aeschylus examine the views of justice and the morality of the justice system on two levels: in the city-state and the individual.
Their child is disable and has a delayed learning in physical activities. Brother nicknames him Doodle because he crawls like a doodle bug. Doodle learns to crawl at three, at age six Brother teaches him how to walk. To motivate Doodle brother says, “You can do it. Do you want to be different from everybody else when you start school?” Doodle replies, “Does it make any difference?” Brother responds, “It certainly does” (182). This shows how determined Brother is to make Doodle normal and avoid embarrassment at school. This also shows the standards of society and how it puts pressure on kids to be normal and fit in. Society puts pressure on everyone, it’s impossible to go somewhere and not be judged for not fitting society’s standards. Some people, like Brother will go to extremes to not stand out. Brother eventually teaches Doodle how to walk and on his sixth birthday they reveal Doodle’s walking abilities. Brother explains, “Everyone began to hug me, and I began to cry. “What are you crying for? Asked Daddy, but I couldn’t answer. They didn’t know that I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all their voices, and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother” (180). This shows how Brother’s pride is taking over him, the only thing that matters is fitting in at school. He is crying because he is ashamed that he has no power over his pride. Brother explains how he is a slave to his pride and that he has no control over his actions regarding the protection of his pride. All of this leads to Brother pushing Doodle to his limits. Brother and Doodle are running home in the rain, Doodle can’t keep up with Brother and Doodle falls
The debate between Unjust and Just Speech in Aristophanes’ Clouds draws the reader’s attention to the theme of natural pleasure versus lawful justice. The debate begins with the two Speeches representing
“The third day- it was Wednesday of the first week- Charles bounced a see-saw on to the head of a little girl and made her bleed,” (1). In the short story “Charles” written by Shirley Jackson, Laurie, the main character of the story, is a young kindergartener who is able to run around causing trouble at school and at the same time, pretend that it is only another boy in his class that is making the trouble. “Charles” teaches you that parents do not know everything about their child even though the child lives in the same house as them. Laurie’s parents do not know what he is like at school. Laurie is flamboyant, and arrogant yet creative and those characteristics make him the perfect troublemaker.
In Plato’s The Republic, we, the readers, are presented with two characters that have opposing views on a simple, yet elusive question: what is justice? In this paper, I will explain Thrasymachus’ definition of justice, as well as Socrates’s rebuttals and differences in opinion. In addition, I will comment on the different arguments made by both Socrates and Thrasymachus, and offer critical commentary and examples to illustrate my agreement or disagreement with the particular argument at hand.
Before I read Oliver Sacks' article dealing with Virgil's sight recovering, I tried to guess what would happen if an adult who has been blind for a lifetime had recovered his vision. On this paper, I will confront my hunches to what really happened on the article.
The concept of justice has been a crucial factor in determining governments and the structure of society. In this essay I will argue two thinkers, Thrasymachus and Hobbes, as represented in the writings of The Republic, by Plato and Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes divergent ideas on justice.
Laurie did not obtain enough attention, in a result, she misbehaved for attention. Laurie was trying to be cool and get attention so he misbehaved at school on the first day. He went home, then told his parents that Charles was bad that day and he was
The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce is widely recognized by New Critics as one of the greatest novels of its age for its aesthetic artistry. In the Portrait, a powerful autobiographical novel of bildungsroman, commonly known as a coming-of-age story, that follows the life of Irish protagonist Stephen Dedalus, Joyce portraits his momentous transition to adulthood as a passage of psychological struggle towards his ultimate philosophical awakening and his spiritual rebirth as an artist. Most visibly in Chapter Four of the novel, Stephen Dedalus, after the denial of his own priesthood, goes on to seek his artistic personality through his secluded journey amongst a myriad of natural elements. Dramatizing the Stephen’s progression towards his artistic revelation, Joyce deployed numerous image patterns that together insinuate the spiritual transformation of Stephen Dedalus into an “impalpable imperishable being” out of the earthly body of which he is composed of (Joyce 108). Specifically, Stephen’s intellectual transfiguration is largely connected with the symbolic connotations of the clouds depicted throughout his journey, which alludes to his transcending soul, wafting across the celestial heaven yet hovering intimately close to the earth that he belongs.
Stephen's Journey to Maturation in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce, exemplifies the model of art it proposes as it also offers the reader on how to read that very art. Following the main character, Stephen Dedalus, through life, Joyce uses Stephen’s immediate perception to convey how an artist views the world. The reader witnesses Stephen encountering everyday aspects of life as art—the words of a language lesson as poetry or the colors of a rose as beautiful. Through Stephen’s voyage and words, Joyce introduces the theory that “beauty” as a label for an object is not born from the actual physical object itself, but rather lies within the process one goes through when encountering the object. Joyce’s theory is also experienced by the reader as he or she encounters Stephen’s perceptions as well as the beauty of the poetic language and vivid description within Joyce’s narrative. The rhythmic patterns and stylistic sentences create a multitude of authorial voices that blend at various points in the novel involving Joyce, Stephen, and the reader.
Who am I? That is a wonderful question, I am a girl who like to eat pizza and go skating, but I don’t like seafood and I hate hiking with a passion. I want to go to college and then own my own successful chain of restaurants, and I want to be living on the outskirts of beatrice with my husband and our two children. That is part of who I am, I do like to do more than just eat pizza and skate though.