Coming Of Age By Margaret Mead

Since the first spark of human life, coming-of-age has even occurred at the time of Adam and Eve. Many people think that the only part of maturing is puberty. However, one of the greatest parts of growing up is not, surprisingly, going through puberty. Coming-of-age involves recognizing different perspectives.

     Childhood is a time where children learn about the world around themselves. They see and experience many factors that influence their everyday lives, which help them grow stronger when they become adults. In 'Girl'; by Jamaica Kincaid and 'The Lesson'; by Toni Cade Bambara the characters within the stories learn valuable lesson with help them grow to become better individuals. In 'The Lesson'; the character of Sugar undergoes a realization that society does not treat everyone equally, that not every individual has the same opportunity and equality that they should have. In 'Girl'; the main character learns that she must be perceived as a woman and not as a slut, her mother brings to her

During the post-reconstruction era from 1877 to the mid-1960s, primarily southern and border states operated under a racial caste system referred to as Jim Crow. Not only did Jim Crow refer to anti-Black laws and restrictions such as Black codes and poll taxes; it was a way of life dominated by widely accepted societal rules that relegated Black people to the role of second class citizens. In the autobiography of Anne Moody entitled Coming of Age in Mississippi, Moody describes growing up as a poor Black woman in the rural south and eventually getting heavily involved with the Civil Right Movement during her college years. The detailing of her experiences expressed not only the injustices inflicted on Black people as a monolith by the Jim

The book “Coming of Age in Mississippi” By Anne Moody is an autobiography and talks about the lifestyle of growing up as a Negro in the rural south during horrid times for blacks. Moody was born on September 15, 1940 and died just last year on February 5, 2015. Moody starts her story from the beginning of child hood living with her mother and siblings. She was a brilliant student and also had the motivation for doing her best, but the barriers that blocked her simply seemed impossible to pass, she was a black female. It is noted that in Centreville, where she lived, 8th grade was the highest education for Negro children (28). Whites on the other hand had much more access to literally everything. It wasn’t until about the age of 7 when Moody played with other white children for the first time, this was how segregated the lives were. When including race Moody’s mother always seemed to hide things from Moody and that’s what sprung her curiosity. Moody was often scolded for asking questions that arose like, why the theaters had white and black sections.

If society was asked what defines “coming of age,” what would it say? Some would say people come of age when they act more mature, think grown up thoughts, or do certain actions. This quote by someone unknown helps form an explanation of what coming of age is: “Maturity doesn’t mean age; it means sensitivity, manners, and how you react.” In the literature piece “The First Part Last,” the author Angela Johnson writes about two teenagers, Bobby and Nia, who struggle with the difficulties of teen pregnancy. Throughout the book, they both face many hardships that put their relationship, patience, and responsibility to the test. With the help of a red balloon, a basketball, and family pictures in a doctor’s office, Bobby comes of age after paying attention to these symbols and signs throughout the novel.

Would you stay silent when society punishes you for it's faults? In the book Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody, tells of a story of a girl told to remain silent and unseen. She lives in Mississippi of early 1940's. Anne Moody stayed on a plantation with her heart breaking mother, brutal father. and infant brother.

Anne Moody's “Coming of Age in Mississippi is a narrative autobiography of life as a poor African American woman during, a time of intense prejudice and segregation in American history. Anne Moody’s autobiography follows her journey beginning at the age of four until her involvement with the Civil Rights movement. She recounts the horrors and shame of growing up as an African American in the South. She describes the extreme poverty, brutality, and violence which all African Americans shared. She chooses to come out of the struggle a victor and be a pioneer for the freedom and justice.

The mid to early 1900 's were a brutal and troublesome time for African Americans. The constant racial and social discrimination was something they faced and something that continues to plague us today. In Anne Moody 's book, "Coming of Age in Mississippi" she depicts how life was growing up in the south through her eyes. The constant discrimination and abuse that many African American minorities faced was something she grew up with. As she grows up and takes part of many organizations to fight for equality, Moody manages to gather valuable experiences and wonders if the issue of racism is something that will truly be conquered.

In Coming of Age in Samoa, by Margaret Mead, she exemplifies and puts emphasis on the idea of socialization through the view of the Samoan girl, and we also see what her sexuality is as she becomes an adult and has to deal with marriage. Before reading the book I never knew that different cultures like the Samoan culture viewed everything in their daily lives different than how we view it in ours. After learning about the Samoan culture in the book, it gave me a new perspective and how to view the world around me because the book discussed key concepts I didn’t expect to be interesting.

In The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings, David Lancy enlightens one to discern that the meaning of childhood in middle-class Euroamerican society is radically far-fetched from the meaning of childhood in other continents. He explains that “a child’s worth varies widely across cultures, across social classes, even within a single family” (Lancy, 11). In circumstances where most third-world societies are “gerontocracies” that prioritize the needs of adults over those of children, that of Euroamerican society is in contrast, a “neontocracy”; a child centered society that

In her novel, Dark Age Ahead, Jane Jacobs discusses why five pillars of society are in danger. These five pillars are families rigged to fail, credentialing versus education, science abandoned, and dumb-downed taxes and self-policing subverted. She goes into detail as to why each of these sections of our society is struggling and is destined for a dark age. However, for the purpose of this paper, I will focus on education and my agreement as to how educational institutions are focusing on credentialing its student instead of educating them.

Throughout Joan London’s coming of age novel ‘The Golden Age’ there is a complex exploration into all the character in the novel. Based in the 1950’s Perth Polio epidemic, London exposes the effects that polio has on patients and families physically and mentally and how this effects their future. With the use of a non-linear structure London provides insight into characters’ pasts and their aspirations for bright futures. London is able to display these aspirations through the exploration of relationships, recovering from polio, parenting and how not everyone’s future is bright throughout the novel.

The transition into womanhood can be viewed in many different lights. It can be seen as a slow, gradual process that takes years to complete. For others, it can take one experience that will alter the way a female will think and act for the rest of her life. As for Andy, she is a mixture of both. She begins the story with a younger girl’s view on life with flashes of womanhood running through her vision and then with the experience of killing a doe, she transitions into the woman she is meant to be. Throughout the story “Doe Season” written by David Michael Kaplan, the reader is able to witness Andy’s varying sense of womanhood and her complete transformation into it.

You’re surrounded with dime-store fitness fads and joined the cult of low carb dieters. You sweat for hours cross training and use a Fitbit. How can you still feel so….old? Let’s change that. Staying Young is the de facto Bible for anti-aging. Dr. Corey Mote, the winner of the 2010 Fitness Britain bodybuilding championship, writes a tour de force book that takes readers on a fascinating journey through age reversal. Staying Young is a step-by-step guide that revamps your nutritional intake, amps up your workout, rejuvenates your skincare, and radically alters your time clock with hormone therapy. Dr. Mote even covers plastic surgery and med spas. The book’s philosophy is simple: How you age is directly proportional to your health and positive

Hannah Arendt’s most influential work The Human Condition was published in 1958. It makes distinctions between labor, work and action, between power, violence and strength and between property and wealth. It is surprising that more than 55 years later the originality and novelty of this book is still present. Arendt compels the reader to open their eyes and to look at the world and human affairs in new ways and with a completely different perspective. In her prologue she professes that she wants us to do “nothing more than to think what we are doing.” The Human Condition is associated with Arendt’s work on totalitarianism. The Human Condition and her work on totalitarianism work together to highlight the contemporary human predicament. Arendt’s interest in human affairs was due to her encounter with Nazis which led to her interest and participation in political activities. Hannah Arendt developed her philosophy of education during her time in the United States. Her philosophy is shaped by the political turmoil that played out in public schools at that time. Arendt was influenced by many philosophers. “One sees Jasper’s influence in The Human Condition in which Arendt developed this idea of action: public, political behavior based on communication” (Snelgrove, 4). Hannah Arendt was struck by Cal Marx’s picture of individuality which was devoted to production and consumption. For Arendt this is a revealing representation of modern society in which economic concerns have come