Comparing Maturation in Sons and Lovers, Out Of The Shelter and The Rachel Papers

Paul begins to make frequent visits to the university library in an attempt to discover more about Keller's past. Incidentally, he discovers a couple having sex on the floor and decides to watch on. In his mind, this makes Paul thing about having sex himself. And in turn having sex with his first crush at his new school Megan Murray whom he admits to the sexual dreams he has had about her and despite her appreciation, she rejects him. After returning back to school Paul meets new student Rosie Zollo, who falls for Paul however he initially finds her annoying. After the advent of Pauls newfound sexual maturity, Paul will fall for Rosie. "Each day my eyes seemed to be opened just a little wider, and more of that sun-drenched town of lush garden, scents, and sexuality seemed to cram itself in. Nothing I heard in that dark, humid room in the Swam had much place in my new world.." later on the couple share their first sexual experiences with each other. Megan, who Paul later has sex with, regrets it and realizes his love for Rosie. This shows Megan who is a symbol of Pauls sexual adolescence and was really only a depiction of physical attraction. Pauls maturity then blossoms when being around Rosie who he learns to love and care for her in a way that he had never cared about Megan. His love for Rosie grows so deep he then begins to sadly ignore keller and begins to miss lessons to be with

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.

The relationship between the two fathers and the two sons is a very important theme in this book. Because of their different backgrounds, Reb Saunders and David Malters approached raising a child from two totally different perspectives.

The novel Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff is mainly about a seventeen year old girl named Jolly, who encounters many difficulties as she has two children from two different, absent fathers. Jolly desperately needs help raising her two children, Jeremy and Jilly, and LaVaughn helps babysit temporarily. LaVaughn is caught up in Jolly’s problems and she guides her on the right path. However, LaVaughn cannot sacrifice her academics to babysit for her because she wants to go to college and she wants to start to build her future. These two main characters take separate paths as they each develop and mature throughout the stages of the novel and they have similarities and differences. Both, Jolly and LaVaughn, illustrate actions that

In the short stories, “Saving Sourdi,” by May-Lee Chai and “The Moths,” by Helena Maria Viramontes, the main character of each short story goes through their own coming of age experience where they are forced to mature in order to overcome an obstacle. Chai explains her main character, Nea’s, struggle as she is forced to mature and overcome the departure of her older sister, Sourdi, from her life after she gets married and moves away. Viramontes, on the other hand, depicts her narrator’s struggle as she is forced to mature and overcome the death of her Abuelita on her own. Despite their very different approaches, both Chai and Viramontes successfully convey their main character 's struggles in their journey from youth to adulthood.

She does not understand why the older and well-known authors are not being read in high school. Prose uses a personal experience from her son’s sophomore English class. He had to read a “weeper and former bestseller by Judith Guest” (424), about a dysfunctional family dealing with a teenage son’s suicide attempt. “No instructor has ever asked my sons to read Alice Munro, who writes so lucidly and beautifully about the hypersensitivity that makes adolescence a hell,”(424). She again mentions books she approves of that should be read in English classes.

She could feel Paul being drawn away by this girl. And she did not care for Miriam. "She is one of those who will want to suck a man's soul out till he has none of his own left," she said to herself; "and he

The trials and tribulations adolescents face as they shed their innocence and cross the threshold into adulthood is a universal issue facing young readers in all eras. The dazzling use of simile in Charlies’ statement “my exit from

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.

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.

The two articles “Boys Life and “Emancipation: A Life Fable” both have a comparable theme. The theme is similar because in both passages the main character is looking for freedom. Moreover, in the text “Boys Life” Cory wants to get dismissed from class because it is the last day of school. In “Emancipation: A Life Fable” the animal wants to escape his cage to wander the Earth. The passages also show that new situations can cause discomfort.

Psychologists usually agree that the teenage years are among the most difficult periods in one’s life. Most teens are trying to figure who they are, what they believe, and how they fit into the world around them. Beginning in the late 1970’s, a whole genre of fiction, referred to as coming-of- age literature, emerged and serves, at least for many teens, as believable presentations of young people learning to navigate the difficulties of their lives, often fraught with feelings of rejection, seemingly unresolvable personal turmoil, social problems, school and family issues, etc. Indeed one value of reading is to see and better understand some aspects of ourselves through studying others. The reading of SPEAK, a somewhat controversial

The life choices also made and impact on the lives of the boys and transferred into their adulthood.

Psychologists usually agree that the teenage years are among the most difficult periods in one’s life. Most teens are trying to figure out who they are, what they believe, and how they fit into the world around them. Beginning in the late 1970’s, a whole genre of fiction, referred to as coming-of-age literature, emerged and serves, at least for many teens, as believable presentations of young people learning to navigate the difficulties of their lives, often fraught with feelings of rejection, seemingly unresolvable personal turmoil, social problems, school and family issues, etc. Indeed one value of reading is to see and better understand some aspect of ourselves through studying others. The reading of SPEAK, a somewhat controversial book

about Paul’s happiness whatsoever and even goes on to prevent him from doing the course that he loves, the course that would make him happy, simply because she feels it will be a threat to her stay in the big white house that she has loved for so long; the house that sing the song that only she can hear. Again, Anne Rivers Siddons has used the contrast between the two characters to portray the theme of ambition. The fact that Paul is willing to go the extra mile in order to make Ruth happy while Ruth does not even think twice before ruining his happiness makes Ruth look heartless. For the rest of Paul’s life Ruth takes advantage of him. The juxtaposition of the two characters helps the writer to portray the theme of ambition.