A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man's Relationship to Evan's Enormous Question

A Portrait is a tough book to connect to my question determining what is right and what is wrong. However, Stephen's decisions throughout the novel show that sometimes he made a right decision and other times he might not have. For example, Stephen is first questionable about religion and the catholic manner in which he has been growing up. He com mitts the sins because he feels that he will not go to hell if he does because he doesn't believe very strongly in the idea of sins leading to purgatory. However, once he listens to Arnall's speech concerning hell he feels like he must do something in order to save his soul from the eternal fires of hell. He confesses his sins and feels much better. This raises the question, Is the right thing to do the thing that makes you or someone else feel better? Is it all a competition to feel as best as one can? Later on, Stephen begins rejecting the catholic hold on him and knows that being a priest is not the right career or life choice for him. Instead he would rather demonstrate his artistic talents by himself. You could say he is selfish a little because he refused to got to Easter mass with his mother. Stephen's choices are still left to opinion on whether they are right or not so at this point there is not conclusion on the topic of right and wrong. I think if the book progressed into Stephen's success or failure as an artist it would be easier to understand what he did right and what he did wrong. Is right based off of Success. Does this mean a bussinessman who is very successful is doing the right thing? I doon't think so. What about a drug lord?