A Rant on the Most Frustrating Human Being Ever

In the last chapter of the Portrait of a Young Artist, it did not fail to include Stephen’s snobbish and rather entitled behavior, but then again that is typical Stephen. An important part of this chapter was Stephen’s decision that after college, was going to fulfill his “calling” of being an artist. 

I want to touch on this whole idea of being artist and how you should approach it. It was clear for us to tell that for Stephen, he thought the only way for him to truly be an “artist”, was to completely isolate himself and cut ties with everyone­ ­— including his family. This rubbed me the wrong way because I didn’t understand how easy it was for him to state that and be okay with it. Even the way he was saying it, “I must go away.” Like ??? He makes it so dramatic as if he’s going to go fight in battle, but we all know he would be too chicken for that.  There are several different ways that he could gone about this, like moving away but NOT having to cut everyone off, but instead he chooses the most destructive option. I think that having to abandon your loved ones in order for you to focus on being artist is the easy way out. If you have to physically remove yourself from your surroundings just so you can write about them, how good of an artist does that actually make you? The most incredible thing about artists is that they are able to capture the beauty and essence of their OWN surroundings— while still being present in them.  

I was extremely pleased that someone was able to challenge Stephen’s idiotic decisions. Cranly, by far is one of my favorite characters because unlike his other friends who let Stephen drone on and on about ridiculous things without even paying attention, Cranly actually engages in the conversation with him and gives him a reality check. When Stephen was complaining to Cranly about how his mother wanted him to go to Easter communion with her and he refused because he “won’t succumb” to their practices, Cranly didn’t understand why it was SUCH a big deal and told him to just mindlessly do the actions to please your mother. Like okay, if you don’t believe in it, that’s fine just go for the sake of your MOTHER, but the fact that he’s so adamant about not going makes it seem that he isn’t as confident as he thinks he is and rather he’s trying to convince himself that it’s what he believes in.  It genuinely annoys me that he really does not care about his mother’s feelings or anyone’s feelings for that matter at all. All he cares about it is himself and being artist and he doesn’t care who he screws over, even if it’s his family—which absolutely disgusts me. 

I am so grateful that we are finally done with him.