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...