An Education Coming Of Age Story

Set in the early 1960’s, An Education, is a coming of age story about Jenny Mellor. Jenny lives a life of extreme mediocracy in the London suburb of Twickenham. There her life consist of keeping her grades up, which is not very had since she is very adept at school, and going to the dreaded youth orchestra all in the name of her father’s dream of her being accepted into Oxford. Her only issues in life are learning Latin and getting her Father, Jack, to accept her potential boyfriend, Graham, a nice but kind of awkward boy from youth orchestra who made the mistake of telling her father that he wanted to take a gap year. That is until she meets David Goldman. By seducing her with tickets to rare concerts, expensive gifts, and his cool demeanor …show more content…
An example of her lack of displaying emotion would be when she loses her virginity to David. This occurred during their trip to Paris, “the city embodies Jenny's wildest dreams,”(Ebert, 2009). Jenny has always dreamed of going to, all throughout the day leading up to the event Jenny is never seen without a smile on her face. She and David prancing around look like a picture perfect couple. But after the deed is done Jenny seems so unaffected, as she even go so far as to make it a point to say “All that poetry about something that lasts no time at all.” “She thrills to the concerts, jazz clubs and chic restaurants on David's merry-go-round,” but when it comes to the actual relationship she is reserved (The Rolling Stone, 2009). She shows even less enthusiasm when David proposes to her. She is so expressionless during this scene that the viewer does not even know if she has accepted the proposal until the next scene, where she blushes and gushes like the true school girl she is and proudly shows off her ring that draws her to the center of attention, the place where she has always wanted to