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Sometimes things in your life can have more of an affect on your life than you think; sometimes things in your life can have the opposite affect on your life than it set out to have. When those things are forced into every part of your life as a child they become very things you disgust and turn your back on when you become an adult. Nowhere is this more evident than in James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man where being punished by several different people severely affects the growth and development of the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus. We meet the young Stephen as he is interacting with his family and his neighbors, and we see the first image of punishment. Stephen expresses his intention to marry his neighbor, Eileen Vance who happens to be Protestant. This shocks his Catholic family and in response to their shock, Stephen crawls under the table. Stephen's mother assures the others that he will apologize, and Dante adds a threat that eagles will pull out Stephen's eyes if he does not apologize. This situation is never resolved and the readers don’t know for certain whether or not Stephen apologizes to the adults but one should assume for fear of the punishment he does. The story then changes to the images