Essay 4 Life Is A Journey
Life is a journey
Growing up and becoming independent is the toughest accomplishment for a young person. It all starts with the parents, and their main role is to care for and prepare their child for a independent survival as an adult. Of course, there are different factors responsible for developing confidence, self-esteem and self-worth. Each of these characteristics are influenced by how a child is raised and the type of parents that raised them. Another factor is the education provided to the child. The life story of the narrator Stephen Dedalus in the novel “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” by James Joyce, is a good example to explore the influence of childhood on the adult.
Stephen’s earliest childhood memory is of a story that he was told by his father about a moocow and a little boy named baby tuckoo. He also remembered his mother having a nicer smell than his father. The memories from an early childhood are difficult to recall because a child does not have the experience yet to put them in perspective, but it seems that Stephen has loving and supporting parents. Their dedication to their son’s education is showing in this passage “The first day in the hall of the castle when she had said goodbye she had put up her veil double to her nose to kiss him: and her nose and eyes were red. But he had pretended not to see that she was going to cry. She was a nice mother but she was not so nice when she cried. And his father had given him two fiveshilling pieces for pocket money. And his father had told him if he wanted anything to write home to him and, whatever he did, never to peach on a fellow. Then at the door of the castle […] the car had driven off with his father and mother on it. They had cried from the car, waving their hands: -Good bye, Stephen, good-bye!” (Joyce, 3). Stephen did not appreciate the separation from his home at first but his parents made the decision to send him to a catholic school in his best interest, although they did not take
Growing up and becoming independent is the toughest accomplishment for a young person. It all starts with the parents, and their main role is to care for and prepare their child for a independent survival as an adult. Of course, there are different factors responsible for developing confidence, self-esteem and self-worth. Each of these characteristics are influenced by how a child is raised and the type of parents that raised them. Another factor is the education provided to the child. The life story of the narrator Stephen Dedalus in the novel “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” by James Joyce, is a good example to explore the influence of childhood on the adult.
Stephen’s earliest childhood memory is of a story that he was told by his father about a moocow and a little boy named baby tuckoo. He also remembered his mother having a nicer smell than his father. The memories from an early childhood are difficult to recall because a child does not have the experience yet to put them in perspective, but it seems that Stephen has loving and supporting parents. Their dedication to their son’s education is showing in this passage “The first day in the hall of the castle when she had said goodbye she had put up her veil double to her nose to kiss him: and her nose and eyes were red. But he had pretended not to see that she was going to cry. She was a nice mother but she was not so nice when she cried. And his father had given him two fiveshilling pieces for pocket money. And his father had told him if he wanted anything to write home to him and, whatever he did, never to peach on a fellow. Then at the door of the castle […] the car had driven off with his father and mother on it. They had cried from the car, waving their hands: -Good bye, Stephen, good-bye!” (Joyce, 3). Stephen did not appreciate the separation from his home at first but his parents made the decision to send him to a catholic school in his best interest, although they did not take
Cited: James Joyce. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. New York, Dover Publications, Inc., 1994, Print. Liliana Heker.”The Stolen Party” Uncommon Knowledge: Exploring Ideas Through Reading and Writing, Rose Hawkins and Robert Isaacson, Boston, MA: Wadsworth, 1996, 3-8, Print. John Updike.”A & P” Uncommon Knowledge: Exploring Ideas Through Reading and Writing, Rose Hawkins and Robert Isaacson, Boston, MA: Wadsworth, 1996, 225-230, Print. Plato.”The Allegory of The Care” Uncommon Knowledge: Exploring Ideas Through Reading and Writing, Rose Hawkins and Robert Isaacson, Boston, MA: Wadsworth, 1996, 66-70, Print. Ovid.Metamorphoses (VIII:183-235), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daedalus