Coming of Age Stories: Explorations of Components of the Narrative
In literature, one of the most frequently dealt with theme is the story of one character's developing over time and reacting to the various experiences that he or she faces through the course of the narrative. This type of tale, called a coming of age story, follows the characters from the point at the beginning of the story all the way up to the end of the tale when all of the events end. Throughout each part of the story, the character will have to go through changes in some way because of the experiences that are had through the plot and through the depictions of the other characters. hat is paramount in the telling of a coming of age story is that as a character ages and develops chronologically, that character must develop in an equal percentage emotionally and as….

Coming of Age: Hard Lessons Learned in the Short Stories of alker, Tan, And Bambara
Coming of age themes are present in many short stories. The short stories "Everyday Use" by Alice alker, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan and like "The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara, are dependent upon a comparison between the values of old and young. All show the foolishness of parents and children in different ways and quite often the character who thinks he or she is the wisest is in fact shown to be the most ignorant. As young people struggle for self-definition they can frequently be callous and blind to the wisdom of their elders but older people can also be blind to the wisdom of the young.

This is illustrated most starkly in "Everyday Use" by Alice alker, where the protagonist's eldest daughter Dee believes herself to have become highly educated and aware at college because….

Amir's early sense of privilege is lost, but he is also haunted by the way he behaved to a lower-class boy, Hassan, the son of his father's servant. Amir abandoned his kite runner and left the boy viciously attacked. This sense of cowardice in the face of evil creates a negative self-image that Amir internalizes and adopts as a part of his adult sense of self. "I became what I am today at the age of twelve," he says, brooding upon what he sees as his inherently fallen character (Hosseini 1).
Unlike his father, who turns his anger outward towards the Taliban regime, Hassan's adolescent experiences make him ambivalent about his lost, high-class status because of the political revolution in his homeland. On some level, Amir feels it was deserved and a just punishment of his character. Amir comes of age with a sense of loss, or one could say….

Coming of Age in Mississippi
Racial Inequality and Civil Rights Movement in Anne Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi

Anne Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi is one of the most important autobiographical stories from the Civil Rights Era that is widely read today. The book covers Moody's nineteen years of life. The story begins when Moody was four years old and concludes with her participation in a march against racial inequality when she was twenty three. Moody tells her story of growing up in Mississippi and her struggles against racial inequality during the Civil Rights era. As Moody demonstrates, African-Americans in Mississippi faced racial inequality in virtually all areas: political, social, and economic. But while Moody discusses political and social inequality that African-Americans suffered from, she specifically emphasizes how destructive economic inequality was. She became somewhat disillusioned with Civil Rights Movement because Civil Rights activists primarily addressed political and social rights….

Coming of Age in Mississippi
In the United States, the minority populations of the country have been historically marginalized and minimized in importance. This has been true for all minorities but particularly for those who are African-American. The Civil Rights Movement was a series of organized protests against the oppression of African-Americans in the United States by members of the white majority population, particularly in the American south where African-Americans were not only marginalized but legally separated from whites because of segregation. Led by such Civil Rights organizers as Martin Luther King, Jr., African-Americans banded together to enact much-needed change throughout the country. Some of the members of the community were reluctant to engage in the Civil Rights Movement for fear of what might befall them; an understandable fear considering that so many of those fighting for their civil rights were imprisoned, beaten, or even murdered. Anne Moody was one of….

Despite herself, Anne Moody gets drawn into the fight for civil rights, knowing the challenge is exceptionally easier said than done but knowing she has no other course to take. For her, the civil rights movement is such an essential part of her whole being. The various economic, social racial and physical injustices that took place in the general African-American public from her childhood until she became an adult was the motivation for her involvement in the civil rights movement.

She verbalizes of unimaginable possibility and circumstances and how she deal with to keep excelling in her ambition, nonetheless she give you an idea about her hesitation, fear, and skepticism about the whole civil rights movement's achievement. While she persistently fought the surge of society and her elders, all of a sudden in the end she is trying to communicate as if it all may have been for not.

As Anne Moody….

In this novel, the events of what is known as the Prague Spring serve as backdrop, a time when the Soviet military occupied the city and made it known that the people of Poland were not in control of their own destinies. Tomas had once condemned the Communists and so is asked to leave the city, and he and Tereza travel to Switzerland. hen they later return to Prague, it is with the knowledge that they will never be allowed to leave again.
The political and social structure in each of these works informs the personal development of the young characters in different ways, and what links these works is the sense that young people come of age in a context, a context formed by the society in which they live. How they react to that society helps shape the transition they make from adolescence to adulthood and from childhood….

Coming of age narratives do not necessarily depict complete struggles, or complete journeys to maturity. Some narratives of coming of age depict a protagonist that reaches maturity only through a great struggle. Other comings of age stories depict a central character that strives to create a new and different form of identity but fails miserably in the process. The best forms of such stories, however, take the reader by surprise. "Where are you going, Where have you been?" By Joyce Carol Oates begins as a comedy, but ends as a tragedy. "The Man Who was Almost a Man," by Richard Wright begins in a tragic vein, but ends as a funny tale of triumph.
Joyce Carol Oates' young, female protagonist Connie is an apparently sassy young woman, beautiful and brimming with life and confidence in her budding sexuality. In contrast to her older sister, Connie is expressive and animated. She seems….

Coming of Age: Telemakhos in "The Odyssey"
e often hear the line, "Like father, like son" and Homer's "The Odyssey" gives us an opportunity to see how this line can actually work in life. ith a father like Odysseus, one might feel a bit of intimidation and insecurity, so it is understandable that Telemakhos might have a rough time being his son. In such a scenario, a weak individual might never reach his or her full potential because the idea of a great father becomes a burden rather than an inspiration. Telemakhos struggles a bit with who he is at the beginning of the story but by the end, he is confident in who he is and much of this comes from his ability to be open to opportunities that allow him to learn and grow. He does not have time to be bitter nor does he waste time worrying about….

The Quinceanera is a community typically celebrated by individuals in Latin America and is relatively similar to bat mitzvah and to the sweet sixteen party. This celebration is meant solely for girls and it represents the passage a girl experiences as she goes from being a child to being a young woman. "it's usually an elaborate and costly occasion, with many members of the family's community of friends and relatives involved in planning, participating in, and paying for it, and it serves as a signal that the honoree has reached womanhood" (eiss Adamson & Segan 65).

All things considered, coming of age parties are present in many areas from around the world as people want to emphasize the transformation that a person experiences as he or she goes from being a child to being an adult. hile some might be inclined to interpret the sweet sixteen party as a snobbish event….

James Gray's The Yards is a film reminiscent of a Greek tragedy with its principal characters caught up, helpless, in a web woven by fate. Yet, the film has intrinsic value as it does move its audience into reflecting on how Leo, the film's main protagonist, could have possibly chosen his own destiny if only he had received the proper guidance as he faced several 'coming of age' issues.
In fact, it could be interpreted that the very opening of the film hints as much given the symbolism inherent in the scene where a subway train emerges from a tunnel into daylight. The movement of the train from darkness into light symbolizes not just Leo's hopes for a stable and respectable, law abiding future but almost a promise of it through the light representing hope and wisdom. In line with this interpretation is ahlberg's styling of Leo's character as a….

Margaret Mead and Coming of Age in Samoa
Different aspects of culture define people over a period of time. It is only human nature that we see differences in culture and ourselves when thrown into a melting pot, a mix of multi-cultures in which we live today. One can only imagine what it must have been like for Margaret Mead as she traveled half way around the world in search of understanding aspects of other cultures, very foreign from our own. In this respect, she was a trail blazer, breaking with convention and expectation of her own role in society by becoming an anthropologist. It is the quest of the anthropologist to observe, discover culture and document aspects of that culture that are unique. ith this mind, it is important for one to have a working definition of culture, in order for one to explore rituals embedded within society that define….

strength"-Oprah infrey:
The coming-of-age struggles of to Kill a Mockingbird and Romeo and Juliet

Although written in radically different styles (one is written from the perspective of an Elizabethan playwright, one is written in the voice of the child), at radically different eras, and in completely different media (one is a play, the other is a drama), both illiam Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird can be classified as coming-of-age dramas. In Romeo and Juliet, the teenage protagonists gain a sadder and more sophisticated understanding of the conflict-ridden world in which they live as a result of their love for one another. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the young narrator Scout comes to better understand the evils of the simmering racial tensions which exists within polite Southern society. Through the emotional struggles they personally undergo and witness both characters attain new levels of maturity they did….

After striking off down the river, he has many encounters with various townspeople that cause him to question whether or not this is a society he truly wants a place in. Two of the most memorable characters he meets are the King and the Duke, who do nothing but swindle the people they meet and attempt to control Huck. They even sell Jim, and Huck determines to leave them. This is one of many instances that Huck leaves the adults in his life, and though these two are not exactly responsible adults, this still shows his growing independence.
One of the most poignant events in the novel that truly illustrates Huck's wisdom as an adult comes during his final encounter with the Duke and the King. Some of the townspeople that the pair has swindled have achieved their revenge by tarring and feathering the two, then riding them out of….

The author of this brief response took a look at four chapters from a particular book. What follows in this report is a direct and measured response to those chapters. The readings themselves had a good variety and variance to them. They all involve very personal subjects but all center on the coming of age of teenage girls during the first generation after World War II ended. However, they are not monolithic or too much alike in nature. It is important that literature explore the human condition and what drives people to act and behave as they do. Of course, nobody lives or behaves in a vacuum. Despite what some people might suggest, what a given person does can affect the behaviors and reactions of others and/or the same thing can happen in reverse.
Analysis

The first reading and topic is one that tends to be explosive and controversial. Indeed, that would….

1. The Role of Courage in To Kill a Mockingbird

2. Racism and Injustice in To Kill a Mockingbird

3. Moral Development in To Kill a Mockingbird

4. Character Analysis of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird

5. The Symbolism of the Mockingbird in To Kill a Mockingbird

6. The Importance of Empathy in To Kill a Mockingbird

7. Social Class and Prejudice in To Kill a Mockingbird

8. Atticus Finch: A Heroic Figure in To Kill a Mockingbird

9. Themes of Childhood and Maturity in To Kill a Mockingbird

10. The Impact of Literature in To Kill a....

Outline: Across Five Aprils

Introduction (3-4 sentences)

Hook: Begin with a captivating statement or anecdote that introduces the topic.
Background: Briefly introduce the novel "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt and its historical context during the American Civil War.
Thesis statement: Clearly state the main argument of the essay, which will explore the arrangement of the novel.

I. Chronological Structure (250-300 words)

Explanation: Describe how the novel is arranged chronologically, following the events of the Civil War from 1861 to 1865.
Impact on plot: Discuss how this arrangement provides a clear progression of events and allows the reader to witness the characters'....