Coming Of Age Story Analysis

In many children and young adult books, the transition from being a child to becoming more “adult-like” is a common theme. Coming of Age stories gives its readers the opportunity to go through the transition period with one or more characters from the novel. Most of these stories share similar conflicts, struggles, barriers, and developmental milestone that most of the readers are dealing with at that particular point in time of his/her life. These books and sometimes novels, describe the barriers in ways that all readers can relate to regardless of time period; these stories become more timeless universals for all readers to connect with.

¨Parents act so strong for us, that we often forget just how fragile they are.¨ As we grow we often find ourselves not spending as much of our free time with our parents as we had when we could barely speak a sentence without having bad grammar. This maturing state is something all of us experience. We become more interactive with sports, friends, relationships, and we forget who gave us this wonderful life. In the following stories of ¨ The Passage¨, ¨Through the Tunnel¨ , and ¨American History¨ the author utilizes dialogue to indicate the disconnection from their parents in the journey to adulthood.

Reading coming of age stories are always interesting and at times nastolgic. Coming of age stories typically include a young protagonist forced to make a grown decision which is a transition to their first move into adulthood. In a sense, these stories show the protagonist shifting from innocence to gaining experiences. The two coming of age stories that we read in class were “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett and “The Man Who Was Almost A Man” by Richard Wright. Both being coming of age stories, they have similar features but were different in the sense that one protagonist seemed to have made a shift into adulthood whereas one did not.

Various novels can be classified as “coming-of-age” texts, this means that these are stories about a protagonist’s transition from childhood to adulthood or just growing up even as an adult. These novels show their growth and change in character over the length of the text. Novels such as The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston are all examples of coming-of-age novels. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God the story is focused on Janie Crawford and her growth over the course of the book.

Coming-of-age stories do not just happen in books, they happen in real life, too. Coming of age is when a person goes through a challenge and on the other side of that challenge they are better as a person than when they went in. In literature, coming of age can happen through experiencing loss and finding identity. In the novel Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, the main character, Will, goes through a coming of age by experiencing the loss of a family member. Similarly, in the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the main character Ralph experiences coming of age by finding his own identity.

In the novel “A Long Way Gone”, there are endless amounts of evidence to be found explaining why this novel is a “coming of age” novel. So, what exactly is “coming of age”? Typically, this is a story that is made up of three different factors: young characters who experience a crisis, absent or negative adult relations, and the incorporation of an epiphany moment. The story of Ishmael Beah could not be an any greater representation of this category of story, because at 12 years old there is no peace that could be described in his childhood simply because peace was absent.

The ways that the roles of older brother Sam and younger brother Tim change throughout the story. In the beginning of the story Tim’s role as a younger brother when Sam was at Yale was he had to milk old Prune and do his brother Sam’s chores. But, at the end of the story his role as a younger brother was the responsibilities of running the tavern with only his mother. Tim also, worried about Sam being a Rebel in the Revolutionary War. The roles of older brother Sam changes in the story. In the beginning of the book Tim admired Sam because he was his older brother. At the end of the story his role was to fight in the war because he wanted the glory.

Coming of age is a recurring theme that is universally known throughout many different pieces of literature. Whether it’s influenced on true experiences, childhood memories, or even based on one’s current juvenile reality, many of theses works have a correlation between them that include many similar ordeals and struggles that the character goes through in order to metamorphosize into taking their first step out of childhood. One prominent theme that often appears is how one experiences and faces a time of tribulation and other walls that stand in one’s path. In effect, hardships mature and enlighten one, causing the loss of something such as childhood innocence. Lastly, these three combined points finally lead to one’s metamorphosis out of childhood. All in all, these three factors take one out of childhood, and slowly allows one step out into the reality of this world.

Coming of age novels, Cold Sassy Tree and To Kill a Mockingbird introduce readers to 14 year old Will Tweedy of Cold Sassy, Georgia and 5 year old Jean Louise “Scout” Finch of Maycomb County, Alabama. Both characters were brought up in small, close-knit southern towns, with false views of the world, and ignorance to knowledge and experience. As the stories progess however, the two gain a new type of knowledge and realization of the world. Experiences dealing with love, death, racism and discrimination helped the character’s child-like ideas of the world blossom into a more adult-like perspective. Will and Scout had changed in ways both . My paper will further discuss the traits that Scout Finch and Will Tweedy share.

Coming-of-age is still an interesting phenomenon because of how complex people’s personalities are. Authors repeatedly include this into their work because of it’s deep meaning. Harper Lee and David Dobbs are both examples of authors who included this concept into their work even though Lee hides it in her’s and Dobbs flat out states it. But there is one thing that both of these authors agree on, Coming-of-age involves recognizing different

When you hear someone say “coming of age” you think of new responsibilities and expectations, that come with milestones of a certain age group. There are different ages that have different expectations, becoming a teenager, society expects that you accept more responsibility and that you are able to care for yourself in most situations. The ideals that society creates and expects us to follow often increase in responsibility as we grow older.

In coming of age stories, the protagonists often experience a pensive and dramatic moment where either they break through to adulthood or retreat to childhood - it is this moment that unveils the magnitude of growing up for the reader.

Coming of age is an influential part of many people’s lives. They begin to leave behind their innocent childhood views and develop a more realistic view on the world around them as they step forward into adulthood. (Need to add transition) Many authors have a coming of age theme in their books; specifically, Harper Lee portrays a coming of age theme in his book To Kill A Mockingbird. Through the journeys of their childhoods, Jem and Scout lose their innocence while experiencing their coming of age moment, making them realize how unfair Maycomb really is.

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

Most common cultures have rituals, celebrations, or traditional ceremonies to acknowledge the coming of age of boys and/or girls. The Hispanic culture have a traditional “Quinceañera” for young teenage girls turning age 15 to recognize her coming of age as a woman. Jews have “Bar Mitzvah” for men or “Bat Mitzvah” for women to celebrate coming of age. Although in some cultures, celebrating coming age is nothing less than actually celebrating; but in other cultures, such as Aborigine culture, rather than having a huge celebration, young teenage boys, age thirteen, are enduring an essential evaluation. In this stage of their life, their elders test them to see if they are “man” enough to survive by themselves.