As a child, one day you wake up and go outside to play for the last time without realizing it. At the moment it seems as if life is just happening until looking back and realizing how much maturity and growth you’ve encountered as an individual.
Coming of age is marked by the loss of innocence and growth from young adult to adult. Challenges and obstacles are sure to come your way when settling to the realization that childhood is no longer in your presence. Focusing on what the future and having helpful guidance could help encourage the pathway to adulthood and finding your way in life.
In Rudolfo Anaya’s, Bless Me Ultima, Antonio must face obstacles in his life to realize that he is growing up into a bright and independent individual from a chicano environment. His progression to manhood is marked with the challenging experiences and loss of innocence he goes through to prove to himself he has what it takes to prosper into the independent individual he was destined to be.
To begin, during a lifetime challenges contribute to a big part of growing up and realizing growth individually. As a young adult challenges are thrown in the way to help build the success of a prospering individual. Just as Rudolfo, author of Bless Me Ultima, throws challenges in front of Antonio to get him to understand the responsibility of growing up and how life may not always be how you want it to be. In Klein’s, “Coming of Age in Novels by Rudolfo Anaya and Sandra Cisneros”, it begins to talk