Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Dickens' descriptions and moral messages
Charles Dickens on Christianity
Dickens' descriptions and moral messages
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Dickens' descriptions and moral messages
Religion plays a huge part in Stephen Dedalus’s as well as many other peoples lives
around the world. To fully understand how much religion effected Stephen, one must have a
concept of the setting of the novel. Stephen grew up in Ireland when the country was going
through religious turmoil, political hardships and suffering financial. The two major religions in
Ireland are Catholic and Protestant. Though out Ireland’s history the two have been basically at
war with one another. This period in time is right before Ireland’s war for independents.
At an early age Stephen witnesses how friends and families are torn apart from religious
differences. At Christmas dinner Mr. Casey, Mr. Dedalus and Dante go back and fourth arguing.
All you hear at the dinner table is“I’ll pay for your dues, father, when you cease turning the house
of God into a polling booth”(Joyce 29). “A nice answer, said Dante, for any man calling himself a
catholic to give to his priest”, they would just constantly bicker in front of young Stephen. Then
at the end of dinner Stephen has to hear his dad saying “Well, my Christmas dinner has been
spoiled anyhow”(32). Going though that at Stephens young age would have to negatively effect
him. I think there Stephen starts to be skeptical about his religion. It shows Stephen is effected
here “The fellows were all silent. Stephen stood among them, afraid to speak, listening” (40).
Stephen’s religion shapes him in so many ways. His religion tells him how to run his life. I
think due to the it represses him sexually. He wanted to experiment sexually. So Stephen goes
into the town of Dublin and gets a prostitute. Stephen feels he has committed a terrible thing. I
mean sleeping with a hooker isn’t a good thing, but its not the end of the world. In the book
Joyce goes on for a while about Stephens felling for what he did.
“Yes, a just God! Men, reasoning always as men, are astonished that’s God should
mete out an everlasting and infinite punishment in the fires of hell for a single
grievous sin. [. . .] They reason thus because they are unable to comprehend that
even venial sin is such a foul and hideous nature. [. . .] A sin, an instant folly and
weakness, drove Adam and Eve out of Eden and brought death and suffering into
Though Stephen initially felt isolated both physically and psychologically due to his illness, through Sachi’s comfort and the calm beauty of Matsu’s garden, Stephen finds his stay at Tarumi to be much less secluded. This proves that though one may feel alone at times, other people or things may help vanquish that feeling. In today’s world, isolation is everywhere – there is isolation due disease, intelligence, race, etc. Yet, people find that the little things like _____ to make them realize they are not alone. This sense of aid shows that like the paint in the puddle of water, all it takes is something small to make the biggest difference.
A deeply pious man, John considers the Bible a sublime source of moral code, guiding him through the challenges of his life. He proclaims to his kid son, for whom he has written this spiritual memoir, that the “Body of Christ, broken for you. Blood of Christ, shed for you” (81). While John manages to stay strong in the faith and nurture a healthy relationship with his son, his relationship with his own father did not follow the same blueprint. John’s father, also named John Ames, was a preacher and had a powerful effect on John’s upbringing. When John was a child, Father was a man of faith. He executed his role of spiritual advisor and father to John for most of his upbringing, but a shift in perspective disrupted that short-lived harmony. Father was always a man who longed for equanimity and peace. This longing was displayed in his dealings with his other son, Edward: the Prodigal son of their family unit, a man who fell away from faith while at school in Germany. John always felt that he “was the good son, so to speak, the one who never left his father's house” (238). Father always watched over John, examining for any sign of heterodoxy. He argued with John as if John were Edward, as if he were trying to get Edward back into the community. Eventually, John’s father's faith begins to falter. He reads the scholarly books
he comes terms with himself and realizes that the fantasy of being the catcher of the rye
Friar, to satirize the idea of charity and show that they are using charity for
Chris expresses spirituality and individuality multiple times. He displays spirituality when he writes to his friend Ronald Franz, “I ...
A small church congregation comes together for Sunday evening mass. The congregation is made up of close friends and family. The novel is centered around the Grimes family. They go to a Baptist church, “Temple of the Fire Baptized” and it is a very close congregation where every member has a personal bond with one another. This fact, I believe, adds to the dynamics of the way they worship and ultimately the way they identify with God.
All in all, Neal Shusterman has written a riveting book that can be brought to light through different lenses. When looking at it through the socio-economic lens, one can see how those with power should choose how they use their power wisely. With the psychological lens, the book can be used to effectively support the fact that everyone acts differently due to the things they know and have learned. Lastly, with the spiritual lens, the book really leads up to the idea that religion is a choice best made for oneself, and no one else. Lenses help to show different aspects of a book that people don’t always notice.
What do you think of when you hear the name Ireland? Ireland is a relatively small island off the coast of Great Britain with a land area of 32,424 square miles (Delaney 2). There are several things that you may associate with this country such as St. Patrick’s Day, shamrocks, beer, and strife. The source of the bitterness behind this conflict began centuries ago, when Britain came over and forced Protestantism on the Irish Catholic inhabitants. For this reason there has always been an animosity between the Protestants and the Irish Catholics. The island is broken up into two distinct regions. The Republic of Ireland consists of twenty-six counties, which make up the southern region. This area is predominantly Roman Catholic. Northern Ireland is made up of the six northern counties, which are under British rule and predominately Protestant. Both sides use propaganda to spread their ideas and gain support. They each have organizations, such as the I.R.A., in the south, and the U.V.F., in the north, which use peaceful methods such as newspapers and murals along with violence to fight for their cause. In Northern Ireland the Protestants used their position in the government to spread anti-Catholic propaganda and persecute the Catholic citizens.
The Irish Republican Army started in Northern Ireland to protect and fight for the rights of the catholic citizens there. Ireland was conquered in 1607 by England, this brought protestant immigrants from England and Scotland. The Protestants quickly came to be the majority of the population. In the 1920s the island was partitioned and Catholics in the north felt that they had been removed from their political heritage. The Protestants felt like they were losing out on resources and wanted to keep control of the north. Neither side was satisfied and problems continued.
...ctions by stating, “The Devil struts his wide estate, and the law of God are mocked”, (pg 20). All his decisions are made upon his religion no matter what it may be. Also those who looked different were judged upon religion and not by whom they really were in the inside, but instead a Deviation. Through these examples it clearly shows that religion often influences one’s point of view.
One of the most closely watched and widely debated conflict of our time is the one occurring In Northern Ireland. It has been a hot debate for over a century now, yet the root of the conflict is still unclear. There have been many theories over time, yet none have been able to adequately describe what is really happening on the matter. This conflict is divided by many lines; ethnically between the Irish and the British, and religiously by the Catholics and Protestant denominations.
- How did the Protestant maintain almost a century of peace in Ireland during the Protestant Ascendancy?
As Stephen grows, he slowly but inexorably distances himself from religion. His life becomes one concerned with pleasing his friends and family. However, as he matures he begins to feel lost and hopeless, stating, "He saw clearly too his own futile isolation. He had not gone one step nearer the lives he had sought to approach nor bridged the restless shame and rancor that divided him from mother and brother and sister." It is this very sense of isolation and loneliness that leads to Stephen's encounter with the prostitute, where, "He wanted to sin with another of his kind, to force another being to sin with him and to exult with her in sin.
The evidence that Stephen relies on his senses is best shown by the description of how much he has to deny his senses in order to reach the "discourse" of religion.
Religion, besides the practical need for food and shelter is one of the most powerful drives in Stephen's life. Religion serves as Stephen's guidance and saviour yet it is also responsible for his tormented youth and distracting him from his artistic development. As a child growing up in a strict Catholic family, Stephen is raised to be a good Catholic boy who will follow the teaching of Catholism as his guidance in his life. The severity of his family is shown when his mother tells him either to "apologise" (4) or "the eagles will come and pull out his eyes" (4). Stephen is taught by his mother to be tolerant when she "[tells] him not to speak with the rough boys in the college" (5). Similarly, Stephen's father also taught him a Catholic quality by telling Stephen "never to peach on a fellow' (6). Evidence of Stephen following the "never to peach" (6) quality is shown when Stephen agrees not to tell on Wells for pushing him into a ditch. However, as Stephen matures into his adolescence, religion becomes his savior rather than his guidance. As Stephen's family condition declines, he sees priesthood as a way to escape poverty and shame. In fact, priesthood is an opportunity for Stephen's personal gain...