Thursday, November 28, 2019

A Portrait Of Stephen Dedalus As A Young Man A Portrait Of The Artist

A Portrait of Stephen Dedalus as a Young Man A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is above all a portrait of Stephen Dedalus. It is through Stephen that we see his world, and it is his development from sensitive child to rebellious young man that forms the plot of the novel. There are many Stephens, often contradictory. He is fearful yet bold, insecure yet proud, lonely and at the same time afraid of love. One Stephen is a romantic who daydreams of swashbuckling heroes and virginal heroines. The other is a realist at home on Dublin's most sordid streets. One Stephen is too shy to kiss the young lady he yearns for. The other readily turns to prostitutes to satisfy his sexual urges. One is a timid outsider bullied by his classmates. The other is courageous enough to confront and question authority. One devoutly hopes to become a priest. The other cynically rejects religion. Stephen loves his mother, yet eventually hurts her by rejecting her Catholic faith. Taught to revere his fathe r, he can't help but see that Simon Dedalus is a drunken failure. Unhappy as a perpetual outsider, he lacks the warmth to engage in true friendship. "Have you never loved anyone?" his fellow student, Cranly, asks him. "I tried to love God," Stephen replies. "It seems now I failed." The force that eventually unites these contradictory Stephens is his overwhelming desire to become an artist, to create. At the novel's opening we see him as an infant artist who sings "his song." Eventually we'll see him expand that song into poetry and theories of art. At the book's end he has made art his religion, and he abandons family, Catholicism, and country to worship it. The name Joyce gave his hero underscores this aspect of his character. His first name comes from St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr; many readers have seen Stephen as a martyr to his art. His last name comes from the great inventor of Greek myth, Daedalus, whose mazes and waxen wings are the kind of splendid artistic creati ons Stephen hopes to equal in his writing. Just as Stephen is a contradictory figure, we may have contradictory feelings about him. We can believe that he is a brilliant artist who must flee dull, uncultured Dublin at any cost. We can admire his intelligence and courage. We can consider his art well worthy of martyrdom, and consider that it merits comparison with Daedalus' achievements. His theories and poems are, if not masterpieces, at least the works of a man who may someday create a masterpiece. Indeed, we can believe that Stephen may grow up to be very much like the James Joyce who wrote A Portrait of the Artist. On the other hand, we can agree with the readers who call Stephen a supreme egotist, "a posturing, unproven esthete," a self-centered snob who has succumbed to the sin of pride. "You are wrapped up in yourself," says his friend MacCann. We can believe, as some readers do, that Stephen's artistic theories and his works of poetry are at most the products of a clever but shallow mind. Stephen may martyr himself for art, but his martyrdom will be worth nothing because he is too self-absorbed to be a great artist. He is not Daedalus; instead he resembles Daedalus' son, Icarus, who, wearing his father's wings, soared too near the sun and died as a result of foolishness and pride. Or we can take other views. Perhaps Joyce makes fun of Stephen's pretensions while still admiring the bravery that accompanies them. Perhaps Joyce feels sympathy for Stephen's struggles but also feels obliged to mock the less admirable aspects of his hero's character--because he shared those character traits himself. The title of the novel contains two hints we may want to keep in mind as we make our judgment of Stephen: 1. The novel is a portrait of the artist as a young man. Joyce himself said to a friend that his artist was not fully formed yet. Young men often take themselves, and their rebellions, too seriously. Yet they may gain wisdom as they grow older. 2. The novel is a portrait, not the

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Inferring Freedom And Equality Essays - Libertarian Theory

Inferring Freedom And Equality Essays - Libertarian Theory Inferring Freedom and Equality Many of Earth?s organisms and processes depend on each other to survive the natural world. First of all, freedom, or "forced to be free," and equality presuppose each other in some instances, but sometimes they are interdependent. For example, if you look into the lower class, people within that class are equal among others in that class. Also, they have freedom inside the boundaries of their status quo. As the view broadens to the whole society, that certain class loses some of its freedom and equality to the aristocracy. In this example, the amount of freedom and equality you receive all depends on money and power. Wealth corrupts the balance of freedom and equality between the social classes in the nation. In all, everyone in a legitimate society has some equality and freedom, however, the how much you get relies on where you stand in the social triangle. In every valid government, every citizen has freedom of their basic rights, but the sense of equality will never be distributed equally between them. This problem is constantly going to true because of the definition of general will: an individual has to alienate some of his natural rights to join the body politic. Therefore, power is distributed to the government, and the people of the nation are not equal. One person will always have power over another. If everyone was equal, chaos would break out into the world, because when nobody governs or rules the citizens, they can do whatever they please. Freedom is preferred in the society rather than equality. A person with freedom would have most rights in the Constitution, but a person with equality would live in a chaotic society, because there is no governing house. Altogether, the presence of freedom and equality together differs with the scope of the condition. America?s concepts of freedom and equality have varied over the course of its history. When the American government was new, only white male property owners had total use of the Constitution?s given rights. Early America also exercised the idea of slavery, where the master and slave relationship exist. But as an intolerance against slavery grew, the masters were forced by the Union to change their illegitimate system to a more legitimate system. This newly built system resulted in all males, property owner or not, having privileges to all rights in the Bill of Rights and the American Constitution. But this method still leaves out a single group of people, women, from the concept of freedom. Also in America, the "separate but equal" issue rose to the surface of controversy over the topic of freedom. All these examples demonstrate where freedom is non-existent to all people in the nation. They also display the same idea of freedom within the private will, but that freedo! m is surrendered to the general will to support a legitimate government. In some cases in the American history, some citizens abandon more rights than others. But as the view travels closer to the present, the difference of the people?s rights between each other gradually diminishes to a negligible amount. This perception of America?s freedom shows an increase of knowledge towards a near-perfect republic. Today, government partially employs the use of total equality. But again, a legitimate government cannot have total equality because of the alienation of certain rights to join the body politic. American government follows the outline of a legitimate government. The checks and balances system balances the amount of power among the three governing houses. Also, the government does not employ a parallel existence of freedom and equality. But that existence is impossible in any legitimate society, according to the description of the body politic and the general will. The individual mind has matured a long way toward this form of structured government, but the basic concept of the government is the natural laws of a human being. Although, man has evolved into a being of great reason, distant from the state of nature, he must look into nature to find a correct and sanctioned regulations and theories.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Harmonisation of International Accounting Standards Essay

Harmonisation of International Accounting Standards - Essay Example The cultural environment of a country plays a significant role in determining the development of its accounting standards and financial reporting system. Infact, it is supposed to have acted as the foundation stone upon which the origin of accounting rests. As Baladouni (1979, p326-327) points out that "the origin, content, or mode of being of accounting was found to be based on cultural and social forces". The accounting structure of a country depends upon social and cultural values prevailing in a society and hence the environment plays an essential role in the diversification of accounting standards among different countries. Mueller (1968) illustrated that the social and environmental conditions the development of accounting standards and principles are the currency composure and balance, legal and political pressures, segregation of ownership and control, economic development and literacy status etc. Nair and Frank (1980) said that the accounting principles and techniques of a c ountry are influenced by its cultural and economic environment. Baladouni (1979) further commented that the â€Å"cultural framework† specifies a group of institutions in the society, representing the most important part of its culture and the feature of general social activities that influence the development of accounting functioning. To assess the basis of distinctness and contrariness lying amongst various cultures, the research carried out by Hofstede is significant as it studies different dimensions.... y depends upon social and cultural values prevailing in a society and hence the environment plays an essential role in the diversification of accounting standards among different countries. Mueller (1968) illustrated that the social and environmental conditions the development of accounting standards and principles are the currency composure and balance, legal and political pressures, segregation of ownership and control, economic development and literacy status etc. Nair and Frank (1980) said that the accounting principles and techniques of a country are influenced by its cultural and economic environment. Baladouni (1979) further commented that the "cultural framework" specifies a group of institutions in the society, representing the most important part of its culture and the feature of general social activities that influence the development of accounting functioning. To assess the basis of distinctness and contrariness lying amongst various cultures, the research carried out by Hofstede (1980, 1983 and 1987) is significant as it studies different dimensions of drawing a comparison and distinction between different cultures prevailing in different nations influencing upon their accounting standards. The four dimensions pointed out by Hofstede (1987, p4-5) best illuminate the ground on which we can rest the reasons behind major cultural differences among various countries. These dimensions are as follows: Power Distance: This refers to the distance or balance of power between the giant and the small dwelling in the society. It is about how responsible a society evaluating the distribution of power among different members of the society. This aspect may vary form nation to nation as not every nation equally distributes the power among its members. Uncertainty