Coming of age

Johnson Reagon (1981) wrote, “…that to be Black women is to move forward the struggle for the kind of space in this society that will make sense for our people.” (p. 82). Anne Moody seems not only to relate to this quote, but embody it. Throughout Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968), Moody is empowered by the adversity she faces which is thrust at her simply because who she was: a poor, black, female living in Mississippi in the mid-twentieth century. It is because of these intersections of…

At the age of 24 in 1925, Margaret Mead traveled to Samoa to conduct ethnographic research on the Samoan culture with a focus on female adolescent’s. Her findings were then compiled into her book Coming of Age in Samoa, published in 1928. She portrayed growing up in Samoa as uncomplicated and offering “…no period of crisis or stress, but was instead an orderly developing of a set of slowly maturing interests and activities” (Mead 109). This can be attributed to their societal structure as is…

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…

Coming of Age Mississippi highlights the quintessential trials and tribulations that were endured by not only Anne Moody but, the majority African Americans in the South during the Civils Rights Era. Moody’s humbling journey through life begins with her as Essie Mae Moody, her parents and baby sister Adline living in a rotted two room shack on Mr. Carter plantation; while withstanding abuse from the hands of her uncle’s who baby sat her named George Lee . Essie Mae Moody first mother became…

proven that the early experiences created in a child’s life, have a direct impact on how they develop learning skills as well as social and emotional abilities. To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming of age novel which reflects on the experiences and life lessons taught to the novels protagonist, Scout Finch, through the ages of 5 to 9, taking place in Southern Alabama, in the 1960’s. Unlike most 5-year old girls, Scout is unusually intelligent, as she already knows how to read, and wear boys…

Growing Up/ Coming of Age In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Liesel and Rudy both do things that represent growing up and coming of age. They grew up in Molching on Himmel Street together and were neighbors. Liesel and Rudy were inseparable since the day they met. When conflicts arose, they were there for each other. They did many unnecessary, childish actions but, when times got harder and more serious they began to grow up and be more mature. Their actions made their friendship grow stronger…

Coming of age I laid their wiggling like a worm in the dirt. Then i just woke up on air mattress in my grandparents house. I stood up looking out the windows checking for the sun but the their was, was the moon lighting up their yard. I stumbled out of the room carefully stepping over my brother, who was snoring louder than an air horn. I opened the sliding door to the living room and my grandparents were their to meet me. I walked over to the clock to see what time it was, the clock read…

S.E. Hinton’s coming of age novel The Outsiders tells the tale of two social classes, the poor greasers and the wealthy Socs. Set in 1960s Oklahoma, Pony Curtis, a sensitive fourteen-year-old greaser, gets caught up in a murder and experiences staggering amounts of heartache and grief over the course of just a few fateful days. Ponyboy narrates his story with vivid descriptions and thoughtful insights into the struggle between his impoverished gang and the privileged, vindictive Socs, who hurt…

A Separate Peace fits into several categories. First it is a coming of age novel because it focuses on the growth of the protagonist (Gene) from youth to adulthood. In the beginning of the book we see Gene now as an adult visiting the school grounds and remembering, then he begins to flash back starting with the summer session which is where he met Phineas. The rest of the book is all Gene’s memories. It continues through the entire summer session, the fall semester, and the spring semester and…

frightened me at first. But my mother merely said, shortly and dryly: “It’s natural. It always happens.” So I sup- pose I stopped being afraid. I reached eighteen without being aware that there was anything special about being eighteen. If any coming-of-age was celebrated in any of the books in the house, it would have been a twenty-first. So I became legally adult and eligible to vote (except that I was on no electoral rolls) without anything being said about it. But my parents (who were…