In the book You Don’t Know Me, the author David Klass used many different tools & techniques to show the theme of coming of age. I’ll be showing off some of the techniques he used to provide us with the theme of coming of age in a clear and understandable manner.
The first one that he used was John’s relationship with his mother. Throughout the book, their relationship is strained in John’s view due to the fact that he believes that she would almost always choose his abusive stepfather, or not-dad as he regards him by, over him, her own son. However, the irony in all of this is, by the novel’s end, we learn that John’s mom really did adore him, and in John’s words, really knew who he was. This show’s the coming of age theme through the fact that as John grew up through the novel, he began to realize that his mother actually did care for him, and would almost always choose him over anyone else in the world. After all, his
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The main thing that John learns is that life is most definitely full of obstacles, but, there’s also a lot of great things that you should be grateful that can help you overcome said obstacles. He learned this throughout the story as at the start, he definitely had a lot of obstacles to overcome. He had a abusive stepdad, basically no friends, and had next to no social life. However, by the end, he starts to become grateful for everything. He realizes he has a mother who adores him and loves him, a teacher that truly cares for him, and a girlfriend who loves him deeply. And, using these things, he overcomes his obstacles and becomes a better person. This is seen clearly where John states that even throughout all the obstacles, there are flashes of good things everywhere in sight. This just shows how John learned how to enjoy life more and be grateful for everything he has, as others don’t have it as good as him, as well as showing the theme of coming of