Comparative Essay The coming of age journey is an old-as-time archetype that has been used by many writers throughout the centuries, from epic stories, to small poems, this trope is a well known, and vastly interpreted archetype.
Two such stories, Grapes by John Steinbeck, and The Way, Way Back, by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, are such examples of this trope. Though Grapes presents the elements of the journey archetype in a more effective way than Way Back, because, while Way Back follows the journey archetype, the movie is only about a teenager learning to help himself. Grapes is about a teenager learning to help not only herself, but her family, and even complete strangers; and learning not being selfish is a bigger part of growing up than what Duncan experienced. The first journey archetype found in both stories is that the hero is naive and inexperienced. In Way Back, Duncan is at first a very shy, and very
…show more content…
She is pregnant, though she does not know about being a mother. She is secretive, giggly, and thinks that everything will be rosy. “She was pleased with herself, and complained about things that didn’t really matter… The world had drawn close around them… Rose of Sharon was in the center” (Steinbeck 129). Rose of Sharon’s only concern was that she was pregnant, not about what the conditions would be like in California, nor what would happen to the family if they could not find work. It only mattered that she would have a baby. The first archetype is more effective in Grapes than it is in Way Back, because it gives more of an emotional impact. Duncan is just awkward, shy, and angry, though grows past these feelings. Rose of Sharon, on the other hand, is selfish and unconcerned. We do not hate Duncan at first—in fact, we sympathise—but we do not like Rose of Sharon. When she starts to change, we realize that we also change in our feelings toward her, which is more than we had with