Essay About Coming Of Age

Coming of Age in East Asia

As we grow up, we develop as people, and learn things from others around us. In these selections from East Asia, there’s different elements of growing up. From these stories and poems from Korea, China, and Japan, there is experience coming of age in more than one way. There are instances of young love, war, passing friendship, and overall life in these foreign places. Through these instances there is growing up and coming of age in places never experienced. From the literature of East Asia, the process of growing up and coming of age through the use of life lessons, metaphors, and imagery.

The first examples of coming of age seen are shown through metaphors. Metaphors are a literary device used in this context to help the reader further understand these specific situations. In the poem “Flower Patterned Snake” (Korea) by , there’s a beautiful snake disguised as something it is not. This can represent how one can believe in someone as something beautiful, or a symbol of trust, but later there is something ugly, such as betrayal, revealed to the narrator. The poem shows how some lessons are painful to learn, but necessary for one’s personal growth as a person. Metaphors are not the only literary device used

to portray the different stages of growing up in these selections.

The next literary device, imagery, is used throughout all the stories and poems in this selection.

In the poem “The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket,” (Japan) by, So Chongu Yasunari Kawabata, there is the story of young love and possible loss shown by incredible imagery. A person’s love is labelled as a bell cricket, as the author describes they will be very little bell crickets in a young boy’s life. The author tells in detail of love and broken hearts. “And finally, to your wounded, clouded heart, even a true bell cricket will seem like a grasshopper ( , ).” With this use of imagery, there is a representation of the beginning of young love, and the hurt one could feel from if. This can be seen as a life lesson while growing

up.

Lastly, the last example of growing up and coming of age in East Asia if life lessons. Life lessons are priceless, and seen in every poem or story in this selection. Life lessons are seen the most in the story from China, “When My Beauty Was At Its Best,” by . Some of the most important life lessons someone may learn can be from within themselves. As seen in this short story, we see strength, and beauty, being found in a hard time such as war. The narrator sees beauty in herself from her own strength, and that represents an important life lesson to some.

In these East Asian literature pieces, there is several instances of growing pains, and coming of age. This is seen in three different countries, and how each place experienced hardship. There is coming of age shown through metaphors, imagery, and overall life lessons. These all correlate from growing up, and makes people realizes that one may face hardships and hard patches of life just as someone from across the globe may face as well. Even though people all over the world live n such different places, they can see through literature how growing up can be so similar.