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Ji In The End: An Analysis Of Jim's Coming Of Age Novel

1389 Words6 Pages

In society today, there exists a large gap between what it means to be a child and what it means to be an adult. Through the experiences of childhood, children eventually depart from the safe, comfortable playpen of childhood and ascend into a world filled with tragedy, dishonesty, and consequences. Several books bring a reader on this captivating and emotional journey where a character in the story suddenly develops into an adult. These stories, often referred to as “coming of age” stories show readers what it truly means to develop into a whole member of society. Overall, the emotional development that typically occurs to characters in “coming of age” novels tends to impact the entirety of their lives; however, the character sometimes has to endure painful experiences to truly grasp what it means to be an adult. Within the novel …show more content…

Jim’s story exists as only one of thousands of “coming of age” novels where characters frequently encounter similar scenarios. Whether the reader of these novels is fifteen or fifty, the reader can connect to the underlying themes and emotional development of the characters because at some point in everyone’s life he or she too had to go through a similar process of “coming of age.” The unique experiences of characters as they begin to see the world through the eyes of an adult and begin to realize that the world around them differs substantially from their children’s stories create an image of a world everyone has lived in. Boughton illuminates that, “It really has to do with an experience that is universal: the experience of being faced with something new in which your identity is challenged” (n.pag.). Towards the end of “coming of age” novels, readers finally get a glimpse into impact that the experiences throughout the novel will have on the characters and who they will ultimately turn out to

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