Daedalus Myth And Portrait Of The Artist Essays - Greek Mythology

Daedalus Myth And Portrait Of The Artist James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a novel of complex themes developed through frequent allusions to classical mythology. The myth of Daedalus and Icarus serves as a structuring element in the novel, uniting the central themes of individual rebellion and discovery, producing a work of literature that illuminates the motivations of an artist, and the development of his individual philosophy. James Joyce chose the name Stephen Dedalus to link his hero with the mythical Greek hero, Daedalus. In Greek myth, Daedalus was an architect, inventor, and artisan. By request of King Minos, Daedalus built a labyrinth on Crete to contain a monster called the Minotaur, half bull and half man. Later, for displeasing the king, Daedalus and his son Icarus were both confined in this labyrinth, which was so complex that even its creator could not find his way out. Instead, Daedalus fashioned wings of wax and feathers so that he and his son could escape. When Icarus flew too high -- too near the sun -- in spite of his father's warnings, his wings melted, and he fell into the sea and drowned. His more cautious father flew to safety (World Book 3). By using this myth in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Portrait of the Artist), Joyce succeeds in giving definitive treatment to an archetype that was well established long before the twentieth century (Beebe 163). The Daedalus myth gives a basic structure to Portrait of the Artist. From the beginning, Stephen, like most young people, is caught in a maze, just as his namesake Daedalus was. The schools are a maze of corridors; Dublin is a maze of streets. Stephen's mind itself is a convoluted maze filled with dead ends and circular reasoning (Hackett 203): Met her today point blank in Grafton Street. The crowd brought us together. We both stopped. She asked me why I never came, said she had heard all sorts of stories about me. This was only to gain time. Asked me, was I writing poems? About whom? I asked her. This confused her more and I felt sorry and mean. Turned off that valve at once and opened the spiritual-heroic refrigerating apparatus, invented and patented in all countries by Dante Alighieri. (Joyce 246) Life poses riddles at every turn. Stephen roams the labyrinth searching his mind for answers (Gorman 204). The only way out seems to be to soar above the narrow confines of the prison, as did Daedalus and his son. In Portrait of the Artist, the world presses on Stephen. His own thoughts are melancholy, his proud spirit cannot tolerate the painful burden of reality. In the end, he must rise above it (Farrell 206). At first, Stephen does not understand the significance of his unusual name. He comes to realize, by the fourth chapter, that like Daedalus he is caught in a maze: Every part of his day, divided by what he regarded now as the duties of his station in life, circled about its own centre of spiritual energy. His life seemed to have drawn near to eternity; every thought, word and deed, every instance of consciousness could be made to revibrate radiantly in heaven... (Joyce 142) Throughout the novel, Joyce freely exploits the symbolism of the name (Kenner 231). If he wants to be free, Daedalus must fly high above the obstacles in his path. Like the father Daedalus and the son Icarus, Stephen seeks a way out of his restraints. In Stephen's case, these are family, country and religion. In a sense, Portrait of the Artist is a search for identity; Stephen searches for the meaning of his strange name (Litz 70). Like Daedalus, he will fashion his own wings -- of poetry, not of wax -- as a creative artist. But at times Stephen feels like Icarus, the son who, if he does not heed his father's advice, may die for his stubborn pride (Litz 71). At the end of Portrait of the Artist, he seems to be calling on a substitute, spiritual parent for support, when he refers to Daedalus as "old father, old artificer."(Joyce 247),(Ellman 16). Even at Stephen's moment of highest decision, he thinks of himself as a direct descendant of his namesake Daedalus (Litz 71). Stephen's past is important only because it serves as the fuel of the present. Everything that Stephen does in his present life feeds off the myth of Daedalus and Icarus, making him what he is (Peake

Paper Products Corporation Essays - Marketing, Office Equipment

Paper Products Corporation Essays - Marketing, Office Equipment Paper Products Corporation Mary Miller is the marketing manager for Paper Products Corporation and she has to decide whether she should allow her largest customer to buy some of Paper Products? file folders and market them under their own name (Natcom Inc.) rather than the FILEX brand used by Paper Products. Mary is afraid that if she doesn?t accept the offer, the customer will find another file folder producer. Mary really only has two options; accept the offer from Natcom or refuse the offer from Natcom. There is a certain degree of risk involved with either option and she needs to decide which option is the safest for Paper Products Corporation. If Paper Products refuses the offer they are putting themselves in a position to possibly lose 30 percent of their business, approximately 12 million dollars per year. Even if Natcom continued purchasing their other supplies from Paper Products, and only quit purchasing file folders, the business would lose approximately 4.2 million dollars per year. If Mary decided to take the offer from Natcom, and allow them to sell Paper Products? file folders with their name, she would be going against company policy and it would not be easy to change this policy. It would be very easy for Paper Products to accommodateNatcom?s offer because they have excess capacity. If they turn down the business, Natcom could go to another producer and cut into Paper Products? sales at Natcom stores. Another benefit of this offer is that Paper Products would not have to spend any marketing dollars to acquire this new business. Natcom came to them with this offer and it did not cost Mary Miller, or Paper Products anything. According to the marketing concept, Mary should accept the offer from Natcom. As marketing manager, Mary should identify what the customer needs, and make Paper Products Inc. the best company at satisfying those needs for a profit. In this case the customer is Natcom and they obviously need to market a line of file folders with their name attached. This need should be clear to Mary because her customer has now approached her three times with this request. Mary will need her expert marketing skills when she tries to sell this idea to Bob Butcher, Paper Products president. Mr. Butcher is primarily interested in the development of new products but he will most likely be interested in this proposal since it deals with his companies? biggest customer. There will have to be a policy change for Paper Products Inc. concerning the corporate policy of refusing dealer-branding requests. Paper Products implemented this policy because they wanted the success of their products to depend on the quality rather than just a low price, but only 40 percent of their file folder products are in a specialized line while the other 60 percent are relatively homogeneous shopping products. The success of the homogeneous file folders will be very dependent on the price rather than the quality, therefore this policy depending on quality rather than low price needs to be revised. Mary should also approach Mr. Butcher about using some more of the company?s available money for the promotion of their existing brands. Paper Products needs to pull some of their money out of new-product development and attempt to achieve some market penetration. Although 60 percent of the current market does sound appealing, they may be able to grab some of the remaining 40 percent with some good promotions and market penetration.

Answer the following questions about history (HIST 4028) Essay

Answer the following questions about history (HIST 4028) - Essay Example Mills remonstrates in his essay from a non-paternalistic point of view where he identifies three basic areas of human liberty. He claims that an individual should not be deterred from pursuits meant for self gratification as long as they do not pose any harm to others. The only instance that a person can be denied their liberties is when they pose a risk or harm to other persons. He sums this up when he describes this as every individual’s right to exercise his or her inward domain of consciousness (Winks & Neuberger 51). The other area, which Mills identifies, is a person’s right to decide on the path, in life, they wish to take, which is represented as the liberty of tastes and pursuits. In this, he tries to show how humans are a dynamic entity that is capable of forging its own destiny individually without having to rely on guidelines from other people. The notion being forwarded by Mill’s three basic principles of human liberty are focused on individuality. I ndividuality is the key tenent in human nature that determines the influence and the impact that people have on others and the world. Individuality determines whether a person’s liberties are construed as dangerous to society because that person’s nature is expressed by how he utilizes his rights of liberty (Winker & Neuberger 59). History played a critical role on the development of philosophies and principles that he used to write his essay. Mills argued that there was a need for a scientific perspective and approach towards history in order for it to be used effectively utilized in society. Mills termed history as a progressive record in the course of events that contribute to the development of mankind. There were some scholars of his time who did not see the sense in his views, and some went ahead and disputed his postulates about the importance of history. This saw Mills go through a depressing time in his life and a change in his views on some subjects that he h ad earlier agreed upon. His depression created a period in his life where he was able to reflect on a wide range of ideas. His conviction on the importance of history in the study of other disciplines, in the humanities, grew stronger during this period. Mills focused his attention on French history, which he deemed more appropriate because most French thinkers at the time seemed to share in his schools of thought. Mills believed that historical events had a significant bearing on the development of society in the present. He also postulated that these events also had a substantial bearing to future events if inferences could be made on the past with regard to the future. Mills was able to study history through a scientific mindset and analyze historical facts. Mills forwarded the notion that historical facts can be used to unveil the law of progress which can enable people predict the future. There were some significant influences in his life that contributed to his notions about t he role history had to play in relation with other disciplines. One of the influences came from his interaction with French scholars and their written works concerning a wide range of subjects some, which intrigued him because of their philosophies regarding history’s role. Mills involvement in the The London Debating Society gave him the opportunity to make acquaintance of people like Samuel Coleridge (Winker & Neuberger 184). Coleridge’s philosophies regarding history complemented Mill’