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Coming of age literature essay
Coming of age literature essay
Child abusement
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Within the novel Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, the reader is introduced to a young women named Marietta, Missy, and she later on renames herself Taylor. Taylor story is much like a coming of age story, and she many new lessons along the roads of life. She learns how to deal with unforeseen troubles, phobias, and the many forms of love, and because these inner actions she learned to see a new outlook on life.>>>>
Taylor started off as a young country girl in Pittman Country, and was traumatized by the mishap of Newt Hardbine's fathers over fulled tire incident. Taylor said "a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt Hardbine father over the top of the Standard Oil sign. (1) Kingsolver" It was more than enough to in steel an internal fear of tires. Taylor had to of express her unnatural fear of tires to her mother, because before she could leave out of town in her new to her '55 Volkswagen bug. Her mother had to be reassured that her little girl could change a tire. Mama questioned Taylor on what she would do if she had two flats, and Taylor thought for a reply, saying "Easy, I put ...
		In the Story, The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingslover we see a character named Taylor overcome several fears that she has. Taylor Greer, a woman who once saw a man being thrown several feet up into the air shortly after his tractor tire blew up, never did really like tires. She always seemed to think that the same thing might happen to her if she ever did something like, overfilling it too much with air. Her mom, who was fairly normal, decided to test Taylor's tire-changing-skills shortly after she bought her ‘55 Volkswagen. She knew what to do in a case of emergency but she was afraid to do it.
Taylor drives all the way up to Cherokee Nation in hopes of finding Turtle’s real parents back at the diner where she was given to Taylor. From pages 225-227, the official adoption of Turtle began. This adoption is supposed to take place between the child’s real parents, but instead, Esperanza and Estevan pretended to be the parents. What the three of them did was against the law. Estevan and Esperanza saw it, however, as a way to make both Taylor and Turtle’s lives better and easier along the road even though it could get them caught. The reason that they did it for Taylor was because they thought it morally right. As a result of how hard Estevan and Esperanza help Taylor in the adoption process, Turtle is now Taylor’s legal daughter. After Taylor says her goodbyes to Esperanza and Estevan, she calls Lou Ann to tell her about Turtle being her daughter “Lou Ann’s breath came out like a slow leak in a tire. ‘Taylor, I was scared to death you’d come back without her’” (245). Kingsolver uses a simile here, comparing “slow leak in a tire” to “Lou Ann’s breath coming out”. This connects to one of the motifs in the book; tires. Tires represent stability, so when Lou Ann lets out the air in her tire, it shows that everyone’s life has become more stable. This quote also ties
involved troubling situations. Look at how she grew up. The book starts off during a time of Jim
Like walking through a barren street in a crumbling ghost town, isolation can feel melancholy and hopeless. Yet, all it takes is something like one flower bud to show life really can exist anywhere. This is similar to Stephen’s journey in The Samurai’s Garden. This novel is about an ailing Chinese boy named Stephen who goes moves to a Japanese village during a time of war between Japan and China to recover from his disease. By forming bonds with several locals and listening to their stories, he quickly matures into a young adult. Throughout the novel, Gail Tsukiyama shows how disease forces Stephen into isolation; however, his relationship with Sachi and his time spent in Matsu’s garden lead him out of solitude.
Janie and the Pear Tree in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Taylor's want and need for a better life than the one she has in Kentucky inspires her to leave. With the money she earns from her job counting blood cells at the Pittman County Hospital, Taylor buys a '55 Volkswagen bug that is falling apart, "In this car I intended to drive out of Pittman County one day and never look back, except maybe for Mama" (10). Taylor's mother wanted the best for her and always expected the best from her;...
April Raintree is the main protagonist in the book, In Search of April Raintree by Beatrice Mosionier. Throughout her childhood she was embarrassed to be Metis, and because of her taking after her mother’s Irish pale skin, being able to blend into white society she would hide her native ancestry.
"Children of the Forest" is a narrative written by Kevin Duffy. This book is a written testament of an anthropologist's everyday dealings with an African tribe by the name of the Mbuti Pygmies. My purpose in this paper is to inform the reader of Kevin Duffy's findings while in the Ituri rainforest. Kevin Duffy is one of the first and only scientists to have ever been in close contact with the Mbuti. If an Mbuti tribesman does not want to be found, they simply won't be. The forest in which the Mbuti reside in are simply too dense and dangerous for humans not familiar with the area to enter.
American consumers think of voting as something to be done in a booth when election season comes around. In fact, voting happens with every swipe of a credit card in a supermarket, and with every drive-through window order. Every bite taken in the United States has repercussions that are socially, politically, economically, and morally based. How food is produced and where it comes from is so much more complicated than the picture of the pastured cow on the packaging seen when placing a vote. So what happens when parents are forced to make a vote for their children each and every meal? This is the dilemma that Jonathan Safran Foer is faced with, and what prompted his novel, Eating Animals. Perhaps one of the core issues explored is the American factory farm. Although it is said that factory farms are the best way to produce a large amount of food at an affordable price, I agree with Foer that government subsidized factory farms use taxpayer dollars to exploit animals to feed citizens meat produced in a way that is unsustainable, unhealthy, immoral, and wasteful. Foer also argues for vegetarianism and decreased meat consumption overall, however based on the facts it seems more logical to take baby steps such as encouraging people to buy locally grown or at least family farmed meat, rather than from the big dogs. This will encourage the government to reevaluate the way meat is produced. People eat animals, but they should do so responsibly for their own benefit.
The Bean Trees is a novel which shows Taylor’s maturation; it is a bildungsroman story. Taylor is a developing or dynamic character. Her moral qualities and outlook undergo a permanent change. When the novel begins, Taylor is an independent-minded young woman embarking on an adventure to a new world. She has no cares or worries. She is confident in her abilities, and is determined to make it through life on her own. As she discovers new things and meets new people, Taylor is exposed to the realities of the world. She learns about the plight of abandoned children and of illegal immigrants. She learns how to give help and how to depend upon the help of others. As she interacts with others, those people are likewise affected by Taylor. The other developing characters are Lou Ann Ruiz, Turtle, and Esperanza. Together they learn the importance of interdependence and find their confidence.
Humans are curious people, knowing how things work and knowing how things fit together has always interested our minds. When we are presented with an idea that we don’t know we want to solve it. That is exactly the purpose of mystery and detective stories. Mystery stories capture our attention and makes us strive to find out and understand the story and this is why we keep coming back to them.
Coming-of-age stories commonly record the transitions—sometimes abrupt, or even violent—from youth to maturity, from innocence to experience of its protagonist, whether male or female. Greasy Lake by T.Coraghessan Boyle and Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates are great examples of traditional coming-of-age stories. The roots of the coming-of-age narrative theme are tracked in the male protagonist’s perspective for Boyle’s short story, while the Oates’ story captures the coming-of-age theme from Connie; a female protagonist’s perspective. In both short stories, the authors fulfill the expectations of a coming-of-age genre when they take us through the journey of rebellion and self realization, as the
Beauty can be defined in many ways. Though, regardless of its definition, beauty is confined by four characteristics: symmetry, health, vibrancy and complexity. Michael Pollan, in the book The Botany of Desire, examines our role in nature. Pollan sets out to discovery why the most beautiful flowers have manipulated animals into propagating its genes. Most people believe that humans are the sole domesticators of nature, although, beauty in some sense has domesticated us by making us select what we perceive as beautiful. In flowers, for example, the most attractive ones insure their survival and reproductive success; therefore the tulip has domesticated us in the same way by insuring its reproduction. Whether it is beauty or instinct humans have toward flowers they have nevertheless domesticated us.
In the short story “The Chrysanthemums” John Steinbeck uses symbolism to reflect the characteristics of his main character Elisa Allen. Elisa, a married woman uncovers her deeply smothered femininity in an inconspicuous sense. Her life in the valley had become limited to housewife duties and the only sustenance that seemed to exist could merely be found in her chrysanthemum garden. Not until she becomes encountered with a remote tinker-man out and about seeking for work, does she begin to reach many of the internal emotions that had long inhibited her femininity. The tinker subtlety engages an interest in Elisa’s chrysanthemum garden that encourages Elisa to react radically. When Elisa realizes that there are other ways to live she attempts to lift the lid off of the Salinas Valley, but unfortunately the tinker’s insincere actions resort Elisa back to her old self and leaves Elisa without any optimism for her hollow breakthrough. Steinbeck’s somber details of the setting, strong description of the chrysanthemums and meaningful illustration of the red flower-pot reveal the distant, natural, ambitions Elisa Allen desired to attain.
The Flowers By Alice Walker Written in the 1970's The Flowers is set in the deep south of America and is about Myop, a small 10-year old African American girl who explores the grounds in which she lives. Walker explores how Myop reacts in different situations. She writes from a third person perspective of Myop's exploration. In the first two paragraph Walker clearly emphasises Myop's purity and young innocence.