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the pressure to find a place in the world

   A common feeling that adolescents face is not being able to fit in, which in turn makes it a common theme in coming-of-age novels. In many of the novels we have read this semester, including: Black Swan Green, Catcher in the Rye, and The Bell Jar they all experience feeling different than everyone else in some way or another. The feeling of not fitting in is essential to adolescence and growing up.  Firstly, in Black Swan Green, Jason doesn’t fit in because of his stutter and love for poetry, which both immediately make him different from his peers. He feels like he doesn’t quite fit in with everyone else, and this only intensifies when he is ostracized by his peers. The pressure from his classmates makes him want to change who he is. Similarly, in The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood feels like she doesn’t fit in, but is because of her mental illness. I think that Esther’s is the most severe case of not fitting in because her feelings of not belonging in society affects her...
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A Realistic Depiction of Mental Illness

Esther’s experiences with her mental health felt real, despite being extreme. In many coming-of-age narratives, the main character struggles with their mental health. For example, at the beginning of the semester I wrote my essay about The Perks of Being a Wallflower. In this book, Charlie struggles with anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Similarly, in Catcher in the Rye, Holden is definitely also struggling with his mental health in some way. However, reading The Bell Jar was a different experience for me because her pain is more intense and real than many other coming-of-age novels that I have read. In many coming-of-age novels, movies, and shows, mental illness is often glorified, possibly for the sake of entertainment. But while reading The Bell Jar, it showed the darkest parts of her mental illness, which made it feel more real. In many coming-of-age stories, there is usually a lesson to be learned, or a message that they are trying to get across. However, this novel is simply abo...
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The Catcher in the Rye Ending

When I first read the ending, I was honestly kind of disappointed. It felt like a failed coming-of-age story in some ways. There was no typical “happy ending” that we usually expect from a coming-of-age novel, but this made it feel more realistic and authentic to me. However, Holden still changes at the end because of Phoebe. Watching Phoebe on the carousel, causing an emotional breakdown eventually leads to a sense of hopefulness . He realizes that Phoebe is her own person and is growing up. She has to live her life and take chances despite the possibility of failure. This realization is a lot more optimistic than what we would expect from Holden. Despite the ending not being very typically climactic, I felt like it was very true to his character. He says, “That’s all I’m going to tell you about. I could probably tell you what I did after I went home, and how I got sick and all, and what school I’m supposed to go to next fall, after I get out of here, but I don’t feel like it.” In hi...
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The Perks of Being a Wallflower

TW// mention of sexual assault When I think of a coming-of-age novel, "The Perks of being a wallflower" immediately comes to mind. Similar to other coming-of-age narratives, Charlie struggles immensely with fitting in, along with his mental health and social life. He is a "wallflower", and stays on the sidelines in life, rather than participating. Charlie is also struggling with beginning high school, while coping with past traumatic events such as the suicide of his best friend, Michael, along with the death of his aunt who was killed in a car crash when he was seven. He discusses his feelings and experiences throughout his Freshman year of high school with his friends, along with parties, drugs, alcohol, sex, and many other experiences that a teenager would have, specifically in a coming of age novel. During the climax of the book, Charlie has a disturbing realization that his aunt molested him as a child, which sends him into a dark depression. He says, “I don’t...
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