The obvious example is, of course, the quintessential 20th century coming of age protagonist-- Holden Caulfield. Holden's obsession with youthful innocence and his disdain for the "phonies" of the adult world demonstrates his ability to see past all the societal bullshit, and finds himself unable to cope with the box society has trapped him in.
Esther Greenwood shares Holden's disdain for how society has limited her-- and mirrors him in her psychological downwards spiral throughout the events of the book. Both Esther's and Holden's inability to cope with the self imposed limits society had placed on itself result in both of them going down a path of self destruction. However, while Holden seems to have finally accepted the status quo by the end of his narrative, Esther's fate is left more ambiguous.
Alternatively, Benji from Sag Harbor, sees how "everyone's faking it", but instead of rejecting society in turn, he chooses to embrace it. Unlike other protagonists, who completely withdraw from society, Benji is able to maintain some semblance of a social life, despite his acknowledgement that "everyone was faking it".
Jason Taylor initially tries to fit in with society-- he tries to join the Spooks, act cool, etc. However, by the end of the book, Jason has realized he needs to follow his own path, and make "his insides match his outsides".
Stephan Dedalus escapes the limits of Ireland, and in doing so escapes the 'duty' of being forced to keep his work Ireland focused, and the already established status quo he was being forced into by staying.
Finally, Ruth completely removes herself from society-- by being presumed dead and living as a transient, she casts off the weight of societal responsibility.
The struggle to come to terms with one's place in society is core to the coming of age experience. It's understandable then, for this motif to be repeated universally across the genre. It's how the character's deal with their struggle that truly defines them.
I like how you connect all the books that we read this year in terms of how the protagonist is able to find their place in society. A lot of how each character develops is through their perceptions of those around them and by how they think that they themselves are perceived. As each character learns more about their peers, they must each decide how this knowledge effects them. Wile Jason seems to reject the idea of faking an identity and chooses to accept who he is, trying to stop censoring himself as much as he has learned to, Benji embraces the same idea of faking it and even at the end is thinking about how he can change his image in the eyes of his peers. Benji sees his appearance as something he creates and puts out into the world to change the way that others view him.
ReplyDeleteYa know, I really like how you kind of wrap up everything we've read so far. Very fitting for the last blog post of you're career, ey? Wait what you still have a year left HA GOTCHA lol kidding I love you and so does everyone in our class --
ReplyDeleteBut yea I totally get what you're talking about. Everyone feels like they don't really fit in and I guess... that's just part of coming of age right? You try to find your place in the world and figure out how things work. That's just how it is.
Now the following question is natural for people of our age -- have we come of age? Do we know our place? lol lemme tell you no you haven't. If you have, then you're settling, and you should get off your ass and start exploring more. Not that I'm in some position to say such things but... ya know. I'm just sayin.
The struggle of "fitting" into society is definitely the main theme that unites our readings throughout this year but personally I didn't feel like the narrators were as alienated as they made themselves out to be at times. While many of them definitely did have "loner" type personalities their struggles aren't that incredibly unique and I imagine that many people have gone through similar things, especially considering the widespread acclaim of novels like The Catcher in the Rye.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice that you found a connection through the books we've read this semester. It seems like they've all been so different, but they do have similarities. By comparing/contrasting all of the books at once, it makes it even more interesting and clear to see how each character decided to deal with their coming of age.
ReplyDeleteInteresting connection between not one, but all of the other novels we've read in class. It puts the books in direct conflict with one another, but yet they all are able to connect on one thing a little more than what's at face value (as you observe).
ReplyDeleteI think that part of the success of this course is the way that all of these books somehow find their way together. It's hard to pinpoint every exact reason as to why we connect the books and the books connect to us, but because if their similar genre they all share deep-rooted commonalities.
ReplyDelete