The Unconventional Wisdom Granted By Growing Up by Morgan

The Unconventional Wisdom Granted By Growing Up by Morgan - February 2015 Scholarship Essay

A story that all students graduating from high school should is "A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man" by James Joyce. The character follows the childhood and teenaged years of a boy named Stephan Dedalus. I chose this book because the main character feels real, the book feels like a diary containing all of Stephan’s thoughts and ideas. Also, Stephan is a character that experiences the usual growing pains; realization that the adults in our lives are not perfect, trying to find what he wants to do with his life, and struggling to form his own thoughts and opinions about the world around him. Throughout the novel, Stephan often experiences both sides of an argument and feels as though he needs to choose a side in order to form his own identity. The story of "A Portrait of the Artists As a Young Man" follows a realistic character throughout his adolescence who struggles to find the “Golden mean” in his life.

The mythical figures Daedalus and Icarus represented the struggle to find the “Golden mean” of life, in other words, finding the path through life that would not bring you too high to the sun so that you burn up, and not too low to the sea that you fall in. Stephen Dedalus’s name represents his great struggle to find a way to live without “flying too high” or “flying too low”. Stephen’s struggle can be summarized into any person’s life. Stephen has his obvious faults as all people do, but Stephen demonstrates the uphill struggle to find the way to live that our faults cannot consume us and we can keep leading successful lives.

I believe that all students should read "A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man" by James Joyce because although it is difficult to read, it defines the struggles of life. The protagonist Stephen Dedalus, tries to find his way through life and learning to live with his faults and talents. Readers listen to Stephen’s thought and ideas about his family struggles, his feelings, and the overall life of an adolescent boy. I believe that the most unique and individual aspect of this novel is that there is no clearly defined antagonist. The Reader must find for themselves that the opponent Stephen faces is live itself. "A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man" demonstrates to readers that the struggle to find happiness is finding the place where faults and talents balance each other, and true bliss and clarity is finally obtained.