A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce explores the position of the individual in relation to his culture and environment. However, when Edmund Fuller so casually said that the premise of the novel is that man must worship his creativity instead of God or risk denying himself, I was very disappointed due to the lack of precision of the point of view exposed by Fuller. Based on the evidence provided by Joyce himself, it can be seen that God is still relevant. Edmund gives Joyce the impression that God is dead. Ultimately, Edmund suggests that the individual must decide between himself and God, but in reality what Joyce wishes to demonstrate is the delicate balance between the admiration of the mind and the respect of God. To fully explore this premise, the book must being divided into two parts, pre-inspiration and post-inspiration, inspiration being the point where he finally realizes his purpose in life, to be a humble servant of freedom of expression. More specifically, this point is when he visits the beach and sees the girl standing on the shore, looking at the waves. From an early age, Stephen was raised in love for the Catholic faith, but as he grew up he found himself in precarious conditions. situations where his understanding of his faith is called into question. Now, this questioning does not immediately lead to distrust in faith, on the contrary, many times one's faith is even strengthened. Let us not forget that the source of his curiosity was God and the awareness of his greatness. On page 13, Joyce writes: “Dieu was French for God. . But although there were different names for God in all the different languages ​​of the world and God understood what all the people who prayed in their different languages ​​said, yet God always remained...... middle of paper...... , as if the seraphim themselves were breathing on him!” (235). Notice first how he connects his soul to his mind. This clearly reveals that for Stephen the concept of God as he sees it is still a source of inspiration. Without God, Stephen's creativity is nothing. His soul must be moved before he can engage his mind. A similar approach is taken in this villanelle. After the initial inspiration from the angels, he connects his feelings about his life and Emma with the original inspiration to write his first poem. With such a plethora of evidence coming from Stephen's mouth and his actions, it can be seen that Fuller is wrong in his assessment that the premise is that man must worship his creativity in place of God or risk denying himself . For Stephen, it is not God, but rather the Church, that he disagrees with, a distinction Fuller does not include in his quote.