In some works of literature, childhood and adolescence are portrayed as times graced by innocence and a sense of wonder; in other works, they are depicted as times of tribulation and terror. Focusing on a single novel or play, explain how its representation of childhood or adolescence shapes the meaning of the work as a whole.
What work of literature would you select? Briefly sketch out your main argument.
17 comments:
I think that a person would have to mention The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This novel is renowned because it was the one of the firsts of its kind to have a child narrator. This is essential to the story because the readers only know what Huck Finn knows. Reading the book in 2009 we know how horrible feuds are and the how awful slavery is, but Huck Finn wasn’t really aware of the issues. It creates a sense of humor in the story as Huck is dragged from one episode along the Mississippi River to another. It is sad how Huck doesn’t really understand that it was his father that he and Jim found. On the other hand having young Huck tell the story we can see a transition from boyhood, one filled with Tom’s idealistic ways, to Huck’s realistic world. The readers see Huck grow up and found his own beliefs and values dealing with slavery through Jims character, and all sorts of other misdeeds through the “kings” and the feuding families.
GRRRR! TONI I WAS GONNA SAY THAT! oh well. another book to mention would be Lord of the Flies. the kids that are stranded on the island are innocent at first because of their lack of knowledge as to how the world works. as the book progresses ofcoarse they realize quite a different reality and their childish view of things changes and they attempt to form different types of government, witness revolutions n serious violence first hand because of the situation they were put in.
There is no question that I would select Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle. The Glass Castle is a memoir, and much of the work focuses on the author's extraordinary upbringing. Jeannette represents her childhood in both negative and positive lights. For instance, she discusses how her mother deprived her and her siblings of food while keeping an oversized chocolate bar for herself. On the other hand, Jeannette also talks about her father's adventurous spirit as he took her "demon-searching" before bedtime.
Jeannette's familial struggles of poverty and alcoholism, among other things, and her moments of simple joy ultimately gave her confidence and independence. Life is whatever one wishes it to be. Despite that the author's childhood had not been the fairytale for which many people hope, Jeannette treated the bad experiences just as significantly as the good ones. They have equally contributed to the person she is today. Overall, Jeannette proposes that one's childhood shapes his character, and that a difficult childhood does not necessarily make for a weak individual later on in life.
I'm going to be incredibly unoriginal and pick...Catcher in the Rye. Holden is the perfect example of childhood where there is a sense of innocence, but along with that shattering of innocence later comes the tribulation. The whole book is about dealing with reality...that you can't hold onto your innocence forever. But my favorite part of the book was a scene where the bus driver kicks Holden off of the bus, i think, with a snowball (which is white -- innocence -- will eventually melt). and there is the symbolism of a red fire hydrant nearby as if society is pushing kids out of their innocence too early. My main argument would be that the while point of Catcher in the Rye is that Holden can't keep the kids from falling into adulthood, meaning his own expereinces throughout with the prostitute and his brother and sister prove to him tht his innocence is fleeting and will soon be gone. ANd when he realizes that others can't be saved he loses all hope and thus all lasting innocence.
I'm 18 today! I think Harry Potter could paint a pretty good picture of adolescence. It only spanned through seven books, so I would assume that some of it had to deal with Harry's growth and not just wizards and such. Harry's entrance into adolescence comes with his realization that he is a wizard; this is a metaphor of him finding his true identity and who he really is. The animosity that grows between him and the school during the 2nd and 5th books symbolizes his changing system of beliefs and abilities which not everyone may approve of (parseltongue, believing that Voldemort is still alive). All of the extraordinary challenges that he faces in each book are analogous to the ordinary challenges that all teenagers must overcome in order to grow, whether it be passing a test or killing the Dark Lord... Of course the only parts in the book that aren't metaphorical are Harry's emotions, particularly his frequent frustrations, which are universal despite the circumstances.
Alright I'm going with To Kill a Mocking Bird. The children within this novel go through an experience like no other. When they are simply just trying to be children their entire world is altered. It is told through the eyes of a child but throughout the novel you can feel the growth that occurs. Scout and Jem are living in a world that is causing such trials and tribulations. They are learning about race and justice and they are just children. The two children are able to learn values of life and take a big lesson from their life experiences. This book is a perfect example of children having to deal with a not so easy situation yet they prevail with the help from a stranger Scout is able to come to amazing life realizations.
In the book “The Giver” the main character is Jonas, an eleven-year-old boy. In his experiences as a young child he never felt pain, but was therefore unable to feel love, or other such emotions. When he turns twelve he is given the job of Receiver of Memory, once he receives his assignment he is no longer considered a child. When he receives these memories, he is able to feel pain as well as pleasure and happiness; he is able to perceive things as they really are. He realizes how plain and boring life in his society really is.
It may seem that the children in this society have the perfect life, a life of no pain. However, as Jonas becomes an adult and receives these memories, he realizes how much the children in his society, as well as everyone else, are missing out on. Their childhood isn’t technically terrible and bad, but if you think about it, they are living a childhood without love or pleasure.
While Huxley's Brave New World may not be a story entirely based around adolescence like some of the other stories, but the description of childhood in this dystopian version of London is representative helps show the complete and total lack of morals and secularity of the society. The children in this society are brought up within each of their own castes, told that they are better than the lower castes (Alphas are the best, and then come the Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and the Epsilons). They are given what passes for morals through lessons given as they sleep, thousands of times over in order to make it completely natural for them to accept them. They are taught to never be alone and to consume as much as possible using as many resources as possible. Young children (elementary school age) are encouraged to engage each other in erotic play, to make the leap to promisicous sex in adulthood seem more natural.
All of the brainwashing and gratutious waste through consumption and the erotic playtimes show how completely corrupted this society was, as statements always seem to be more meaningful when they involve children.
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor gets a taste of both versons of youth. His life is intially filled with "innocence" and "wonder." His loving, doting, rich parents take in and adopt a beautiful little girl. They raise the two children as though they're siblings but arrange for them to marry in the future. Victor is highly intellectual and seriously gifted. They virtually have no problems in their home and are very affluent in society. Towards the end of his childhood and entrance into adolescence...everything shatters. His mother gets pregnant when Victor is almost 17/18 years old- when he's preparing to leave for school. His mother tragically perishes in labor leaving William in the hands of his father, Victor and Elizabeth.
All of these factors of Victor's childhood shape the progression of the novel.
He continues on to school like he'd orginally planned but goes down an alternative route when it comes to science. He becomes obsessed with the idea of creating life and being able to regenerate a lifeless being. If his mother's death hadn't jilted him- had he been able to say goodbye, or known that she was going to pass, he probably would'nt have been so compelled to discover the solution or secret to "life." As a perfectionist and imaginitive intellectual he pressures himself into working on his experiments day and night until he really goes mad. His creation of the monster is abhorred by everyone it comes in contact with. The monster and Victor parallel eachother in the novel and his creation is proof that his shattered upbringing and unexpected loss of his mother brought about his demise in adulthood.
In “A Separate Peace,” the main characters are two high school boys, Gene and Finny. The book begins with Gene in adulthood looking back to his time spent at his boarding school. Adolescence is seen here as independent, the children are without parental supervision, there are teachers, but the children still do what they want. I think that the author, John Knowles, is trying to portray that too much independence is a bad thing. The boys are given too much freedom; they are reckless which ends up with Finny getting hurt. The novel contains tragic events, events that haunt Gene throughout his life. Knowles is showing how much of an effect childhood and adolescence have on the rest of your life.
I can't think of any major work of literature that hasn't already been said, but I used to read a lot of books by an author named Lurlene MacDaniel and she wrote books that were always about teenagers facing troubles in their lives and how they matured through their experiences. One book I remember was called "Angel of Hope" and it was about two sisters. The older one comes home from doing missionary work in Africa and becomes very ill from a foreign disease. Her sister, who is somewhere between 14 and 16, is forced to go back to Africa to finish the work her sister couldn't. Anyways, I remember the main struggle being that the younger sister felt as if she was always living in her sister's shadow and she really struggled trying to find her own identity. I think that understanding who you are takes time and therefore in you childhood and adolescence you can be very confused about your identity. Once you finally find yourself, I think that is when you go from being an adolscent and then become an adult. In this book and most of the other works by the author, the kids grow up quickly because of the challenges they face. I think that with experience and time you develop your identity and that creating and deciphering your identity is the ultimate goal of your childhood and adolescence.
i would select the books in the series A Series of Unfortunate Events. These books are by Lemony Snicket. Unfortunately I haven't finished the entire series but I read most of them, and saw the movie if that counts for anything. But its about three kids who have it all. Their parents are wealthy, they live in a big house, no problems, they all love each other, everything is as picture perfect as can be for the Baudelaire family. However, once their parents die in a fire, they have a very unfortunate life. They go and live with aunts, or uncles, or very close friends of their parents, and each time that family member or friend is killed by their crazy uncle Count Olaf, who is trying to take their fortune. Their childhood pretty much sucks. They, at times, live in the poorest conditions and at times live in the most awkward places with the most unusual family members. The portrayal of the childhood in any one of these novels is that the innocent always win. Evil is bearable enough to beat. And even though their life is unfair and hard, their childhood shows that they can make the best of it, and an overall message throughout the novels are that the closeness of family will always be able to persevere through anything.
I was going to say Catcher in the Rye before I noticed that Kristen also did it, but I'll just add to her ideas.
I agree that Holden's childhood is of both innocence and the terror and fear of adulthood. Holden fears change and is overwhelmed by its complexity. He is also frightened because he is guilty of the sins he sees and criticizes in others. Holden covers up his fear of maturity and change with a fantasy world of child-like innocence. His created understanding and fear of adulthood allow Holden to cut himself off from the world by covering himself with a protective armor of his fantasy world of innocence.
Probably one of the best books to use with this prompt would be the Dickens's Great Expectations. I don't think that any other novel presents a more turbulent and hardship-filled adolescence for Pip than Great Expectations. A young orphan is forced to fight numerous pressures including "destiny" itself. Coming from a low class, he is branded to be a lowly blacksmith for his entire life. Nevertheless, the experiences that Pip encounters starting from such an early age help him "become a gentleman." AN example is his aiding the escaped convict. Dickens shows that despite the misery, guilt, tragedy, and ill-intent that littered Pip's life, he is capable of fashioning himself into a respectable man.
The Outsiders (SE Hinton) would also be an appropriate piece of work to apply to this question. All of the children in the novel are strongly influenced by the society they were raised in. They were raised to believe that only two types of people exist in this world: socs and greasers. This belief leads to the strong divide between the two groups, and eventually brings about the murder of a soc by Johnny. My argument would be based on this theory. The role of the main characters - all adolescents - in these two groups reflect how society has divided itself and the dangers of that division.
The book First They Killed My Father is the work of lit I would select. when Loung is young (5), she is forced to grow up a good 15 years within a time span of a 2 months or so. She learns to be an adult, take care of herself and her family, and survive on her own, because she is separated by her family. This shows a lack of adolescence in her life, saying that adulthood should be rushed. The general idea of the book is that children are innocent, but quick to learn. The book treats adolescence as a privilege, not something a child needs to go through to live and thrive. It implies that innocence leaves as soon as it is realized by the child.
i am going to go with First They Killed My Father. the little girl starts out very innocent but whent the soldiers come and they must leave the city and live in huts she must grow up, learn to farm, and starve herself in order to leave enough food for her younger siblings. I think the innocence she portrays in the beginning of the book serves to emphasize the preciousness of the god days before the soldiers cam and her transformation into a adulthood reveals the meaning of the book, enduring.
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