Bobby Coming Of Age Book Report

Her dream when she was a kid was to fly in balloons for a living. Now, she could barely even afford a birthday balloon, let alone one big enough to fly in. All with having a child, and still trying to go to school. Her childhood dreams were crushed. Her and Bobby both have to give up what's dearest to them, and focus on the impending task at hand. So on Bobby's sixteenth birthday, Nia gives Bobby a balloon. The thing she wanted to do, but can't now. She is handing over everything she wanted to ever be to the man whom she must raise this child with. As a way of saying "I am yours, and you are mine. We are in this together

One of the symbols mentioned in the very beginning of the novel is the red balloon. On Bobby’s 16th birthday, Nia brought him a red balloon and she told him that she was pregnant. The balloon represents Nia giving away her innocence to Bobby and giving up on what on they had. It symbolizes that she can’t go through the pregnancy on her own. Also, red can symbolize love, hurt, and help. “I’ll never forget that look and how her voice shook when she said, Bobby, I’ve got something to tell you” (Johnson 6). This shows how Nia is scared to have a baby because she is only a teenager and she is scared to tell her family.

In the beginning, Nia decides to give Bobby a red balloon on his 16th birthday. While doing this, she says, “Bobby, I have something to tell you.” With this, some conclusions that are drawn are that the news is not positive, and it could mean a drastic change in Bobby’s life. Also, the red balloon has the potential to symbolize many other objects, including Nia’s childhood, innocence, children, and change that is yet to come. For example, since the news is likely about pregnancy, the balloon could represent Nia giving up her innocence and childhood to Bobby, since she has to give up her old life for new responsibilities that come with being a

This is one of the reasons I think Bobby has come of age. In the nextparagraph i'm going to tell another reason how Bobby has come of age.""The second reason to how Bobby has come of age is he is losing his old identity andgaining a new one as he is coming of age. In the book "The First Part Last" he spray paints awall. This wall symbolizes all his positive memories from being a kid all the way to when Featherwas born. Then Johnson goes on to say, "Finally it's just me and that thing in the baby carrierwho doesn't have a face" (pg.60). In this chapter he wants to find the baby's face but he can't. Ina few chapters after that Angela says "I climb the stairs and think about holding her, or maybeI'm really thinking about just holding on to her"(pg.75). He realized Feather is the missing piece inhis life and he wants to keep it that way and not lose her. He needs to lose his old partying anddoing whatever he wants identity and get a new mature and father like identity in order to dothat.This has to do with Angela Johnson's discussion regarding coming of age because he has tochange so much to be mature it's like he's gaining a new identity and growing up.This is anotherreason I think Bobby has come of age.

Bobby will be coming of age and symbolizing his coming of age is a balloon. A balloon is the best thing a child could get for a gift. On Bobby's 16th birthday his girlfriend Nia arrives to his house with a red balloon and some news. Nia tells Bobby that she is pregnant. So the gift of a balloon represents Nia's childhood and she is giving it away. It is also red, and red can symbolize a few different things. Red is the meaning of love, anger, and fear. Nia is giving her love to bobby, but she fears what is going to come, and angry that this is happening to her.

First off, the red balloon that Nia gave Bobby in the very first Then chapter represented multiple things: female and children. In the chapter Nia, balloons appear again when she mentions how she always wanted to be a balloonist, which suggested that not only was she telling bobby that she was pregnant with a little girl when she handed him the balloon, but she was handing him her dreams. Considering these facts, the red balloon was a very important

“I love coming of age stories that have struggle…” says actor Aaron Paul. The First Part Last is a novel that provides a prime example of someone’s struggle to come of age. In this book, Bobby and Nia have a baby named Feather. Bobby cares for Feather and Feather depends of Bobby. Bobby sometimes struggles with having to care for Feather because he feels like everything is changing, when in reality it is just him that is changing. Bobby and Feather live with Bobby’s mom, Mary, in New York. Bobby has changed since having Feather, but the question is, has he come of age? Throughout the book, Bobby changed and developed through challenges he faced. Bobby came of age throughout the course of the novel as symbolized by coffee, Just Frank and his corner, and the commercial jingles.

First I'm going to talk about the Red Balloon, this symbol came up in the first chapter. Its popped up when Nia first found out she was pregnant and needed to tell Bobby. I think this was symbolizing his childhood just floalting away telling him he needs to be a man and start growing up. Bobby really took that to heart and started taking action. Bobby and Nia both started growing up and started thinking about the options, keeping the baby, adoption. They came to an agreement to put Feather up for adoption and they thought was best for the baby.

Bobby’s childhood, the basketball, rolled away. It left, leaving Bobby with only responsibility and hardship. If Bobby’s childhood left, then would there not only be the older ages. This shows Bobby has come of age by the end of the book.

A symbol that is shown is the symbol of the arcade, and children playing games. Bobby will see these children, or talk of what his friends are doing in the arcade; furthermore, it shows that Bobby wants to be a kid again. A symbol that is also shown is the symbol of the bubblegum. The bubblegum found on page 108 shows that he feels the temptation to leave Feather behind, and to just have his life be easy and simple. These symbols all show his longing to be a kid again, but he doesn’t follow these promptings. Bobby always seems to only glance at these symbols, but not put them to action. He doesn’t want to leave Feather all alone, even if it is hard. Another thing that Bobby does throughout the book is he censors himself. Instead of speaking out loud, he stops himself. On page forty-two, Bobby thinks to himself while the teacher is talking, and doesn’t try to contradict what the teacher is saying. He tries his hardest to just listen and keep the situation from getting worse. Throughout the book, Bobby says that he sometimes wants to be like Feather. He even acts like he is Feather’s brother on page 82 saying, “Yeah, she’s easy to deal with, my sister,” in order to get out of the responsibility of being a parent, yet he still has to take care of Feather at the end of the day. “This must be what made my mom’s eyes narrow and nasty words come out of her mouth. This must be what helped give my dad an ulcer and that look on his face that says-what next (Page 33)?” Bobby is able to realize that what he has done has changed the lives of his parents, and it has made the situation harder for his family overall. He feels bad, saying, “I feel worse because I’m taking my dad’s smile and probably some more things he’ll never talk about (Page 74),” and he sees that he might have taken his dad’s smile away. He feels guilty, and therefore decides that he will do as much as he can without his parent’s help. This

He also talks about the pink bear Bobby won for he at the fair in order to creates a sense of sadness. The way he room is sets up the reader to feel bad for the young girl taken before her

-So Bobby thinks that life can get less complicated when he's an adult, but then he realizes what his dad was going through and realizes it doesn't get easier

The red balloon is a symbol. It symbolizes that Nia is giving up her childhood. It also shows who is in control. Usually when you have a balloon you are in control of it, but the thing you are controlling is the string not the balloon itself. “Then she handed me the balloon” (Johnson, .) Nia gives Bobby the red balloon when she tells him that she is pregnant. Upon hearing the word or seeing the color red, what does the mind think of? Is it blood, help, love or negative things? With this in mind, what else does the mind think of when

The time when he tagged the wall is symbol of the understanding of coming of age. He feels a connecting with the wall because it just stands there alone and not connected to anything. Bobby feels unconnected and alone. He sees his past go by while spray painting. All of his childhood like flying kites all day, blowing bubbles in the museum, his family at the beach... Bobby feels

“The Art of Eating Spaghetti” an excerpt from Growing up by Russell Baker explains a youngs man’s new found fascination in writing after they tackled the informal essay Mr. Fleagle gave them. The young writer would have never thought he would have found his loving for writing during his eleventh grade year of high school. Throughout the article the writer tells a vivid flashback about when he and his family got together one evening for supper and ate spaghetti together. “ Spaghetti was an exotic treat in those days.” (Baker)