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...