As we step into A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, we find Stephen Dedalus to be a boy that lives a life of change. He is only one person, but one might say that he is numerous different people, and that most of these people are complete opposites of one another. He is one boy who suffers with living the lives of several all wrapped up into one. It is along with this fact that we embark on a journey into the life of a lost soul that is simply trying to find its proper place in existence. Through this journey we see Stephen as he moves from being extremely pious to completely rejecting religion, from being a daydreamer of heroes and virginal heroines, to finding no comfort in love's midst, from being wealthy and stable to being forced to move from his home. While he has been brought up to revere his father, he only sees his failures; and though he loves his mother, he rejects her dreams for his life. We see Stephen as insecure yet confident with himself, meek yet not afraid to challenge authority, focused yet constantly changing. But the one thing that always remains the same is the fact that Stephen is driven by passion.
             Stephen's whole life is one that is characterized by passion. He lives his life very passionately in everything that he does. Though his passion changes greatly, whether it is toward religion, art, or even women, Stephen never loses passion in one form or another. His adamant approach to living life with one single passion always remains, even though his commitment to each specific passion that he follows is completely conditional upon his current state of mind. Passion simply defined is strong devotion to some activity. Whether that activity is positive or negative to the human life by the normal standards of society did not make much difference to Stephen because when he became devoted to something he did it wholeheartedly and was willing to change himself completely as an...