Bildungsroman

A Search for the True Self On the surface, Rudyard Kipling’s Kim is a blend of religious story and spy novel. However, I would argue that the novel is, in essence, a bildungsroman. Both the lama’s search for the sacred river and Kim’s adventure as a spy in India, ultimately serve to reveal the core of the story—Kim’s continuous search for his true identity. Kim’s search begins with seeking “a red bull on a green field” (15) in his father’s last words. At the beginning, he may not realize his…

Socratic Seminar 1. Human beings as a whole have a seemingly infinite capacity for ego. Our arrogance tends to be our greatest flaw. In what ways is Wroblewski weaving the concept of ego into his novel? Which characters are impacted by their ego, and how does this concept affect the meaning of the story as a whole? What does Wroblewski have to say about the nature of people- and of the Universe? Wroblewski weaves the concept of ego in this novel by portraying the Sawtelles as almost like…

Scout Finch: Sins Versus Sincerity Hypocritical characters, such as Alexandra and Mrs. Gates, are exceedingly present in Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Lee also uses characters of utmost integrity to foil these hypocrites. The polarity of these themes can prove confusing and upsetting to immature youth. Therefore Scout Finch’s development of maturity was a result of her untimely comprehension of the variations between hypocrisy and integrity. Scout Finch learned an important lesson in…

was his drinking and his true, kind nature. While both Lee and Poe use the growth of their characters to create their theme, the style in which they develop their characters is vastly different. Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a slower bildungsroman. The characters in the novel are not as harsh with their actions and are mentally stable. In Poe’s stories, his narrators are often unstable and unreliable. They act out with extreme hostility which often ends in another character being…

Estella Havisham is one of the most important characters in the bildungsroman Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. She is the love interest of the main character, Pip, and she consequentially ends up shaping the way that he lives his life in order for her to become interested in him. However, it can be argued that this only happens due to the way that Estella is raised by Miss Havisham. She is not Estella’s true mother, so one could say that if she had been brought up by her real parents,…

Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is a Bildungsroman novel that to a great extent reflects the importance of life values and morals and demonstrates the importance of these lessons within society. The key lessons that are explored through the text are taught by Atticus Finch to his two children. Atticus not only verbally teaches these lessons to the Finch children Jem and Scout, but leads by example, always following his beliefs and morals to handle different situations. Through the use of…

physically and substantially. In my opinion, as Lacan argued that in each stage of life, human tend to repeat the “narcissistic moment”, therefore Karim’s narcissistic character in the novel adds more veracity that The Buddha of Suburbia is a Bildungsroman by showing Karim’s development, especially in teen to young adult stage with his own “narcissistic…

times, these events occur during one’s youth. Since the brain is still forming during one’s youth, those are the pivotal moments have tremendous psychological effects. These psychological changes indirectly affect that person’s morals. Since a bildungsroman goes through one character’s life from their youth to their adulthood, these pivotal moments that shape someone’s psychological development. In Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Milkman’s pivotal moment of realizing that he did not have the…

Ailen Concepcion Lit. 353 Spring 2016 Title In their memoirs, Fun Home and Stitches, authors Alison Bechdel and David Small tell their personal stories about their strange family life and the struggles in a dysfunctional home. Both authors had strained relationships with one of their parent while the other parent was often aloof and distant. Strangely enough, although their stories seem quite similar both authors bring their own style to the table and made the story their own. Their works are…

Jane Austen’s satirical guide to proper etiquette and decorum prose fiction/novel Emma (1815) and Amy Heckerling’s teen flick Clueless (1995) were two poles apart yet it retained the essential contexts of the original text. While the original plot of Emma has been altered the themes in Clueless remain the same through textual, intertextual and contextual means. By acclimatizing the picturesque country society of Highbury contrasted to those of the higher class into the fast-paced modernity of…