Challenges Of Adulthood

If you have ‘come of age,’ then you likely recall facing challenges that in the moment seemed impossible to overcome. Reflecting upon these challenges now, you may think of them as having been trivial or minor, or you may remember them as some of the hardest and most important things you had/have faced. And out of those changes you may feel, in some sense, that you are a different person now than you were when you first faced them. Both, James Baldwin’s Go Tell it on the Mountain and Carson McCullers’s The Member of the Wedding, contain characters who are facing the ever-approaching expectations of adulthood, and while they respond in very different ways, they all stress the importance of this change in self.

James Baldwin emphasizes this

Florence see’s her transition into adulthood not being able to begin until she leaves home and starts anew. Though it would appear that she does so more as a way to move forward and less as a way to leave who she was behind. Florence is often mentioned to say that people do not change. She says this about both herself and Gabriel, “I ain’t changed. You ain’t changed neither. You still promising the Lord you going to do better – and you think whatever you done already, whatever you doing right at that minute, don’t count” (Baldwin, 254). McCullers’ The Member of the Wedding, also displayed this concept, though in a non-religion-based way, through its main character, Frankie Addams. In the first part of the novel, which is split into three parts, she is known her by this name, Frankie. She is introduced to be a easily bored and angry 12 year-old girl, who feels she is meant for far greater things than the small town in which she currently resides. It is also her opinion that everyone treats her as though she is a child when, in her mind, she is quite clearly a

Jasmine. To her this character is more inline with who she is, a refined adult who will have a fine reputation. She so clearly distinguishes F. Jasmine as being a completely different person from Frankie, often referencing her ‘former’ self as “the old Frankie.” “It was the old Frankie of yesterday who had been puzzled, but F. Jasmine did not wonder any more,” (McCullers 50). Finally, in the third, and concluding, section of McCullers’ The Member of the Wedding, F. Jasmine again changes into Frances, and once again with this transition F. Jasmine is erased. Frances is above the childish actions of either Frankie or F. Jasmine, she is all about the future adventures she will have with her new friend Mary Littlejohn. Despite two “changes” throughout the novel, at the end Frances is just as naïve as she is at the start, the only change in her has been her shift in focus from one future to another. To conclude, one’s identity is a vital aspect across cultures, times, and contexts in the coming of age process. People do not, however, necessarily change from the time of their adolescence to the time of adulthood. ““Folks,” said Florence, “can change their ways much as they want to. But I don’t care how many times you change your ways, what’s in you is in you, and it’s got to come out”” (Baldwin,