Coming Of Age

The Prince of Los Cocuyos certainly touches upon the topic of “Coming of Age”. Everyone experiences it at some point of his or her life. “Coming of Age” is the transition from one’s childhood to adulthood. While this transition is taking place, one gains more responsibility and privileges. It may affect a person both, physically and emotionally. Everyone experiences it differently. During this transition, you develop as a human being.

Most common cultures have rituals, celebrations, or traditional ceremonies to acknowledge the coming of age of boys and/or girls. The Hispanic culture have a traditional “Quinceañera” for young teenage girls turning age 15 to recognize her coming of age as a woman. Jews have “Bar Mitzvah” for men or “Bat Mitzvah” for women to celebrate coming of age. Although in some cultures, celebrating coming age is nothing less than actually celebrating; but in other cultures, such as Aborigine culture, rather than having a huge celebration, young teenage boys, age thirteen, are enduring an essential evaluation. In this stage of their life, their elders test them to see if they are “man” enough to survive by themselves.

In the novel “A Long Way Gone”, there are endless amounts of evidence to be found explaining why this novel is a “coming of age” novel. So, what exactly is “coming of age”? Typically, this is a story that is made up of three different factors: young characters who experience a crisis, absent or negative adult relations, and the incorporation of an epiphany moment. The story of Ishmael Beah could not be an any greater representation of this category of story, because at 12 years old there is no peace that could be described in his childhood simply because peace was absent.

Despite lowering the age to vote and drink in the 1970’s, Australia continued the practice of giving a key too 21-year-olds on their birthday, symbolising their “coming of age”, and with it, the underlying expectation of respect and the adherence of social norms, just as how to act appropriately in public. Between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, the transition to adulthood was defined by, and adult identity rooted in, the attainment of “spousal status” with the formation of a family to follow (Kenyon & Heath 2001b). “Adulthood” was steeped in the achievement of material symbols; marriage, houses and children (McNamara & Connell 2007). While it was evident in my interviews that the attainment of such material symbols are no longer defined

When coming-of-age a person will be continually experiencing, and learning new things. As this happens that person will develop and gain new perspectives on life and the world around them. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout is found gaining new perspectives while she comes-of-age. In David Dobbs’ article “Beautiful Brains”, he shows and explains how gaining new perspectives is a part of coming-of-age. Developing different perspectives is really what coming-of-age is all about. It causes an individual to see the world in a new light, which widens their knowledge and helps them to fully come-of-age and grow

Most of the time, becoming an adult is planned. There are religious ceremonies, the gaining of a driver’s license, and other forms of new responsibility to signify the coming of age. Sometimes though maturity comes at you like a freight train. It comes at you in the blink of an eye and there is no stopping it once it hits you. You are forced to grow up and take on new responsibilities that you thought you wouldn’t have to take on until many years later. It's up to you though to decide what to do from there. You can either try and run away from the problems you have come to face or you can take the train head on and conquer what has been presented to you. I decided to face the train.

Coming of age for us is getting older, living life like an adult, missing what It feels like to be a kid again, well that’s life we just have to live through it. During this essay I will be explaining what coming of age is and what it means.

I use to go to Bethesda Elementary before I moved here. The reason I moved was because I would go to Thomas. H. Pyle Middle School while the kids at BE would go to Westland Middle School. If I continued going to BE in sixth grade when I moved to Pyle I would not know anyone. The reason I moved to Bradley Hills, and not any other school that was going to Pyle was because Bradley Hills had a renovation that allowed more kids to come.

This is a fictional story from the perspective of a male in his early twenties

“The Graduate” is a coming of age story as the film attempts to relay a message of an innocent boy being pushed in an unwanted direction through a society filled with expectations. It focuses on the development and the maturing of the young college graduate and his journey from being in the world of a child to adult. It captures what it is to be young, restless, skeptical and confused. It is reflective of a time when no one has any idea what the future has in store. It is Benjamin’s notion of the uncertainty of reaching adulthood, he struggles to accept this transformation and the idea of how frightening the future really is.

Death of a Salesman is usually saw as a play about a troubled father called Willy Loman who struggles to be a good father and a great businessman. Even though this play is thought to be the tragedy of Willy Loman, but some may say this play is truly a coming of age story for Biff Loman and not Willys story. Carl Jung's review of coming of age includes some key aspects of the development of personality: it's brought by necessity, creates feeling of isolation, and involves conscious moral deliberation and fidelity(loyalty) to the law of one ’s being. Biff coming of age story makes him face all of this realitys in order to find out who he really is.

My coming of age moment happened at a very young age. I was only five years old when I had my first true moment. Before I was five years old, as far as I can remember, I was a really happy and innocent child. I didn’t really have any cares, as a young child shouldn’t. I was a seemingly normal child with a white picket fence kind of life. Then a couple weeks after I turned five, my mom passed away. It was from that moment that I knew what the world was really like and I knew that my life was never going to be the same. I began to take on guilt and responsibilities that a kid never should’ve had to. I began to become very precautious of everything and I wasn’t able to do the things that a normal child could do out of fear that something may happen

Moving right before high school was one of the hardest experiences in his life. Imagine: Leaving behind the house you had grown up in. Leaving behind your neighborhood. Leaving behind all of your friends right before the biggest milestone known as high school. Chris felt like his world was falling apart. Although he didn’t realize it at the time, his family moved so that he could start high school in a more bourgeoisie neighborhood and so that he could attend a prestigious high school. Chris describes this life changing event as, “Helping me to come out of my shell and be more flexible.”

Dobbs explains coming-of-age by describing the scientific background to maturing. … After teens are introduced to other people’s perspectives, their views can be modified or altered: “At some level and at sometimes (and it’s the parent’s to spot when), the teen recognizes that the parent can offer certain kernels of wisdom -- knowledge valued not because it comes from parental authority but because it comes from the parent’s own struggles to learn how the world turns” (Dobbs). Learning other people’s outlooks will extend a teenagers perspective on many different aspects, especially parents because even though teens will not admit it, they respect their parents more than anyone else in the world. Also, once teens realize that there have been people who have been in the same situations they are in, they can worry less about the present and focus on the future. Putting two heads together can lead to great accomplishments; that is why teens look toward their peers for helpful advice about success: teens gravitate toward peers for another, more powerful reasons: to invest in the future rather than the past” (Dobbs). Friends can also have a great impact on the way they make their decisions. The main point is that friends change each other’s opinions all the time. These new opinions that each friend gains can

Coming of age is our minds and bodies evolving into a more mature person. It isn’t based off age, but more of experience and knowledge. Most of the time, coming of age is more profound in the young due to the transition from childhood to adulthood. During this transition, they have their first experience of