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Essay On Coming Of Age Literature

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Coming of age can be defined as an person’s journey of facing challenges that make them into a mature individual. Although coming of age is a different experience for each individual, some experiences are commonly found among pieces of work. Common experiences of coming of age are demonstrated in Marigolds by Eugenia W. Collier, involving Lizabeth’s loss of innocence, the struggle of internal conflict in Sue Monk Kidd’s, The Secret Life of Bees, and Mattie Ross’ journey of coming of age in True Grit by Charles Portis.
Every person’s coming of age experience is different, but somewhere in life, everyone will lose their innocence. In Marigolds, by Eugenia W. Collier, Lizabeth had a loss of innocence experience that contributes to her coming of age. For example, Lizabeth took out the anger that built up inside of her on Miss Lottie’s marigolds, …show more content…

A pivotal coming of age moment is demonstrated in Sue Monk Kidd’s book, The Secret Life of Bees, when T. Ray tells Lily her mother left her. Lily was in her bedroom when she had talked back to T. Ray and told him her mother loved her, T. Ray replied, “‘The truth is, your sorry mother ran off and left you. The day she died, she’d come back to get her things, that’s all.’”(Kidd 39) After T. Ray left, Lily contemplated what he had told her. In her mind, she revisits the day and remembers her mother packing her things, realizing that her mother may have actually just gone back to get her belongings and leave. But then she thinks “What if my mother leaving wasn’t true? What if T. Ray had made it up to punish me? “ (Kidd 41) Lily feels that T. Ray is just punishing her for what she had said and has a fight in her brain. After this she decides that it is best for her to leave T. Ray and this starts her coming of age journey. This piece of text demonstrates how internal conflict can start someone’s coming of age

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