Protagonists In Through The Tunnel, The Intruder, And The Grave

The friends of the narrator, however, do not hide in the imaginary world of childhood and are maturing into adolescents. Sally, “ screamed if she got her stockings muddy,” felt they were too old to “ the games” (paragraph 9). Sally stayed by the curb and talked to the boys (paragraph 10).

“So this is the part where I'm supposed to tell you it's not scary. Well, it is, but fear is natural, fear is good- it just means you're growing up.” (Unknown) Coming of age stories often times illustrate a time in a child's life where they are transitioning from childhood into adulthood. Children often start to interact with the adult world more, and go through a series of changes mentally and physically. Many stories illustrate the emotional changes that children go through as well. One emotion that many children experience is fear. In the following coming of age stories, the characters experience the human emotion of fear, which symbolizes the fear and anxiety that comes with growing up.

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.

p. 82). Therefore, the adult narrator’s ability to comment and reflect on his child-self effectively emphasizes the naïve and vulnerable nature of youth, and contributes to the mood of foreboding and suspense throughout the novel, ‘now I was over confident. I expected things to go my way’ (Chapter 1. p. 28).

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 first example of the children losing their innocence is when they are describing the transition from elementary school to junior high school. Each has found that instead of one teacher, they in fact had many teachers. Additionally, the girls they were once friends with, now different in size and grace, ignored them. This becomes apparent that things have change as a result of age.

In Michael Grant’s novel GONE, everyone over the age of fourteen mysteriously disappears. When this happens all of the children of Perdido Beach are forced to live in a society run by children. Through hard situations and adult choices many of the characters experience coming of age moments. Astrid illustrates the theme ‘Coming of Age’ by looking for her brother, Petey, as soon as she got to her house, at Clifftop while being hunted by Drake, and by taking care of her brother throughout the book.

In the play “Macbeth” written by Shakespeare, there are many dangerous characters. Lady Macbeth is the most dangerous. She has a strong personality and has power over her husband Macbeth. If Lady Macbeth had not encouraged Macbeth to kill King Duncan, then Macbeth would not have become a murderer.

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.

Joss Whedon, a famous director, once said, “Everyone who made it through adolescence is a hero.” Adolescence is a difficult part of life where we learn to become independent and we discover who we are. Many books explore the theme of adolescence, and it is expressed in many different ways. In this story, Jerry, a eleven year-old boy, goes to the beach with his mother and he sees some boys swimming through a tunnel. Inspired by them, Jerry trains hard until he can also swim through the tunnel. In the short story “Through the Tunnel” the author, Doris Lessing, uses symbolism of setting and comparison to express the difficulty of the transition from childhood to adulthood.

According to American industrial designer Adam Savage, “ one of the defining moments of adulthood is the realization that nobody’s going to take care of you.” This statement caused me to cogitate the potential aspects that cause one 's shift from childhood into adulthood.Within the four short stories “Initiation”( Plath, Sylvia.) by Sylvia Plath, “Araby”(Joyce, James.) by James Joyce, “ Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” (Oates, Carol Joyce.) by Joyce Carol Oates, and “The Stone boy” (Berriault, Gina.) by Gina Berriault, each of the authors conveyed the theme of coming of age to shed light on the varying forces that evoke one’s initiation into adulthood. These different forces lead one to change from who they once were, to undergo a

Stories of teenage years and coming-of-age have always enrapt children, teens, and adults alike. But why do they? These groups share virtually none of the same interests, and reside in very different emotional levels of life. In every other form of media, these groups can scarcely coexist—the prospect of watching Power Rangers for the six hundredth time would make any parent blanch, and the thought of their four year old asking to borrow his parents’ copy of The Canterbury Tales is laughable. And surely no other age group would condemn themselves so deeply to internet culture than teens. Coming of age stories, however, are the exception. Nadine Gordimer beautifully explains this phenomenon in her short story “A Company of Laughing Faces”.

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.

In a standard coming of age novel, the protagonist is usually in their adolescent to early adulthood years.

There have been many times in my life when I have felt alone. Although in sixth grade I had the worst experience of my life, leaving my more alone than ever. I had many friends in the fourth and fifth grades. Except there were three girls I just wanted to be the best of friends with. These days, that reminds me of when Jerry, the main character in the short story “Through the Tunnel” , sees a group of boys while on vacation, and decided he wanted to be their friend.