Skip to main content

What is "Coming of Age"


On the first day of discussion in the “Coming of Age Novel” course, we talked about what it means to come of age. The meaning of the phrase should be useful, after all, since we plan to talk about various examples of it for an entire semester. We hardly reached a clear consensus, however.
Some people held the idea that a coming of age is a clear-cut event or ordeal after which you are an adult. This idea is upheld by many cultural traditions. My grandpa was a Boy Scout back in the 1950s. To join the Order of the Arrow, a national honor society for scouts, he had to complete an “ordeal,” which involved staying in the woods overnight, building his own shelter, and preparing his own food with few supplies. Though the ordeal wasn’t explicitly a coming of age ceremony, it’s a good example of a specific event which is supposed to change someone profoundly.
However, most people seemed to agree that coming of age is more of a process. Even a major experience can shape a person throughout their life; one episode can affect or change a person every time they reflect on it. For most people, coming of age is a series of small steps by which one becomes an adult. Learning how to cook, how to drive or take a bus, or scheduling your own doctor’s appointments are all steps towards becoming an independent person.
Of course practical experiences are not the only important part of becoming an adult. One must mature emotionally and learn how to cope with grief and disappointment. One must also come to terms with changing as a person and losing many of one’s childhood memories and friends.
I don’t think I have come of age yet. Though I can cook and ride the bus, I don’t know if I could pass for an adult on my own. I still rely on other people for motivation to perform basic tasks, like getting out of bed in the morning or going to sleep at night. The idea of becoming an adult also horrifies me. Maybe exposure to other people’s accounts of coming of age will help me to realize the ways in which I have grown and the ways in which I still need to grow.

Comments

  1. Dylan BJanuary 26, 2019 at 8:32 PM

    I definitely agree. While coming of age as a whole is a gradual process, the steps taken are discrete events that build up slowly towards the development of a persona. I also like the idea that independence is a large part of your idea of coming of age. I know that I, personally, am trying to become as independent as possible from my parents. I dislike having to rely on other people for anything.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Matthew TangJanuary 31, 2019 at 2:10 PM

    I agree with the idea of coming of age being a gradual process. Although there are some events that can radically change a person, I think they are still a part of a series of events that gradually shape and mature a person.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AkashFebruary 1, 2019 at 7:39 PM

    I like the idea of relating coming of age to becoming independence. If we consider the cultures where young boys and girls must accomplish a task to become adults, the purpose is usually to establish that the individual is capable of thinking, acting, and coping on their own. I think it's interesting to see how Stephen progresses through these stages and what transformative experiences he goes through.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Catcher in The Rye

Catcher in the Rye has been an uncomfortably relatable read for me. At the beginning of the book, I felt refreshed by Holden’s perspective and his readiness to call people out for being “phony.” But of course, every angsty teen relates to this aspect of Holden. As the book progressed, however, I began to see myself in Holden in a way that I didn’t like. First, there was Holden’s outward façade of “not caring,” covering up that he cares deeply. For example, Holden pretends not to care about who Stradlater was going on a date with and jokes with him, but he can no longer hide it when he finds out it is Jane Gallagher. If he really didn’t care, would he have “nearly dropped dead” or gotten in a fistfight with Stradlater? Second, there’s his fear of growing up. He expresses his fear through his self-sabotaging behavior and lack of any ideas or plans for the future. While my behavior isn’t nearly as extreme as his, the underlying feelings behind it were too familiar.
2 comments
Read more

Big Boy Stevie

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man follows a pattern of ending each chapter with a climactic ending which shows Stephen's development in a serious fashion. Chapter one ends with “the fellows” cheering for Stephen’s accomplishment and lifting him onto their shoulders. The next chapter ends with his “romantic encounter” with a prostitute, the third with his confession and spiritual reawakening, and the fourth with his epiphany on the beach. The climax tends to resolve the conflict Stephen has faced in the chapter. In the first chapter, for example, Stephen struggles to be accepted by the other children at his school. His frustration reaches fever pitch when he father Dolan unfairly punishes him in front of his class. He bravely faces his fears and confronts his teacher. When he tells his classmates what he did, they cheer loudly and lift him up. Portrait also follows a pattern of undermining each climactic moment at the beginning of the next chapter, seemingly as a remind...
4 comments
Read more

Sylvie is better than Martha Stewart

Sylvie is not knowledgeable about houses. Her inexperience is understandable, as she lives a transient lifestyle, never staying in one place for too long. As a newcomer to domestic life, she experiences a steep learning curve for housekeeping. She often goes through the motions of homemaking without understanding why or how to do it well.             The best analogy I can imagine for Sylvie’s housekeeping is the music of a band called The Shaggs; Sylvie is to housekeeping what The Shaggs are to music. Sylvie is a transient, forced into domestic life by circumstance, and The Shaggs were three sisters forced into music by their father. Sylvie has a surface understanding of the things people do to maintain their houses, does not understand what purposes they serve. As a result, she attempts to keep the house, but often does things that seem bizarre. For example, she understands that houses are supposed to be swept, but not where o...
1 comment
Read more