Shaping Self: A Push-Pull Between the Individual and Society.
From the moment an individual enters the world, he is subject to the influences of his surroundings. Since human beings are social creatures by nature, it is no surprise that the biggest influences come from other people. As often illustrated in literature, the views of family, friends, and community ultimately contribute to the way an individual thinks not only about himself or herself, but the way he or she learns to see the world around him/her. As shown in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, "The New Dress- by Virginia Woolf, and even my own life, characters' identities are constantly subject to the push and pull of external social influences and the individual's own decisions to re-examine or even reject these influences in order to discover his/her true identity and sense of self.
In James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Dedalus, the main character, is growing up in late nineteenth-century Ireland. Through much of his childhood, Stephen obediently follows all of the expectations and "rules- that are laid out before him. As he grows older, Stephen finds no truth within these rules - only the hollow-sounding voices of his father, his teachers, and even his schoolmates. Through the stream-of-consciousness narrative that Joyce presents, we clearly see that Stephen has a strong understanding of the rules and influences of his parents, friends, and community, but in the end, he believes there is something of greater truth beckoning him to leave these influences behind and form his own unique identity. .
As a very young boy, the only place Stephen can find comfort in is his family. He feels extremely out of place and shy when he is at Clongowes, the Jesuit-run boarding school he attends. When he is at school, he longs for nothing more than "to be at home and lay his head on his mother's lap- (9).
