Antje's Coming of Age Blog

    Jason has come of age      Black Swan Green by David Mitchell follows the main character, Jason Taylor, through his struggles with his parents’ divorce and being bullied. Throughout the book, Jason was bullied in school for his stutter, but that changed at the end of the book. I think that Jason has come of age by being okay with who he is and standing up to the bullies.      Throughout most of the book, Jason wasn’t confident in himself. He was always getting made fun of for his stuttering by Ross Willcox. Willcox sat next to him on the bus on time and said, “G-g-go on, l-l-l-lend us yer p-p-protractor, T-T-Taylor, honest, I want to do m-my M-M-M-Maths homework” (Mitchell 2019). Willcox makes fun of Jason’s stutter in other parts of the book as well. Jason doesn’t stand up to him any of the times he makes fun of him. He’s too scared to. He wasn’t confident in himself to stand up to Willcox or anyone else at school who was making fun of him. ...

  Alison is the Hero in this Journey      Fun Home follows the story of the author Alison Bechdel trying to figure out her sexuality, and at the same time, also learning new things about her dad. After our discussion in class on how her dad is the Anti-hero, I got to thinking that maybe Alison is sort of like the Hero in this story. I think that the 3 steps in the Hero’s journey template that really show Alison as the Hero are “The Call to Adventure” and “The Freedom to Live” steps.      “The Call to Adventure” step is described as “the would-be hero is living a normal, boring life, usually without the cosmic-level conflict that is present later on. At some point, the hero finds himself being called on an adventure” (Colorado Community College System). I think that, just like other steps, “The Call to Adventure” can be shown in several places in Fun Home. I personally think that “The Call to Adventure” is shown when she sees the woman trucker in the ca...

    Dr. Gordon vs. Dr. Nolan      Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar follows Esther Greenwood through her journey and struggles with depression. She ends up going to an institution that helps her with her illness and suicide attempts. At the institution, she meets two doctors, Dr. Gordon and Dr. Nolan. Esther had two different experiences with Dr. Gordon and Dr. Nolan. Dr. Nolan made Esther feel more comfortable, and Dr. Gordon made her feel more uncomfortable and didn’t help her depression at all.      The first doctor who works with Esther is Dr. Gordon, and in my opinion, he was a disaster. He doesn’t listen when Esther is talking, and he thinks that Shock therapy is just going to cure her. Dr. Gordon tells Esther's mother, “A few more shock treatments, Mrs. Greenwood, and I think you’ll notice a wonderful improvement” (Plath 145). This quote shows that Dr. Gordon was so confident in his skills and his method to help Esther. But what happened after sh...

  The Special Bond between Holden and Mr. Antolini is ruined In J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield gets kicked out of his boarding school and starts to live life on his own. He travels all around pretending that he is an adult living in hotels and visiting bars. After visiting his little sister Phoebe, he decides to go to the house of his old English teacher, Mr. Antolini. Holden thought of Mr. Antolini as sort of a mentor and someone that he could go to, but that changed ever since his experience at his house.      Even though we only get one small scene with Mr. Antolini and Holden in this entire book, we can already tell that they have a pretty strong relationship. Ever since Holden saw Mr. Antolini helped James Castle after he jumped out a window and died, he has always looked up to him. When Holden needed somewhere to go after he visited his sister Phoebe, Mr. Antolini was the first person that he thought of. Mr. Antolini is different fro...