Revisiting the Definition of 'Coming of Age'

As I mentioned in my first blog post, now that the course has concluded, I am revisiting my concept of what "coming of age" means to me. To start, I asked some friends what they thought coming of age means.

"It's when you get old." -A. Robison

"It's some significant event that occurs between the time you are born and the time you die." -L. Hague

"Coming of age is when years show up on your front porch and knock on your door." -A. Robison

"I don't know." -L. Hague

"Combing of age is when you flop the hair growing on the side of your head over your bald spot." -A. Robison

If anything, after reading the course literature and living through the past semester, I can say that "coming of age" has become more nebulous instead of more well defined.

I am reminded of a comment I made on Jonny's blog where I doubted whether middle school literature staples The Pigman and The Outsiders could be considered coming-of-age novels on par with Catcher and Portrait. I must say that I am reconsidering my stance a little bit. Especially after reading some books by John Green (yes, I'll promote him every chance I'll get) I realized that there is much more to offer by coming-of-age novels than a journey.

In terms of coming of age itself, I could best say that it is whatever you make it out to mean to you.

Ramblings on Sag Harbor

I can't say Sag Harbor was the most enjoyable book I've ever read. The narration was consistently disillusioned and flatly nostalgic, without the vitality of some of the other narrators we have read.

At the same time, I did like some parts. Benji's narration, while unenthusiastic, told a compelling story of a boy's summer vacation. I liked all the insights that Benji shared about his life, friends, and family.

Perhaps one reason for the difference in tone is that Benji does not give us attributes to root for as Jason does. Jason is a poet and a bullied kid with troubled parents. Benji is a kid... who does things. There is less arc and defined structure in Sag Harbor, instead opting for partially-related snippets.

Novelizing the Coming-of-Age Process

Mr. Mitchell recently linked us to an article suggesting that Black Swan Green could do well to be elevated to the same heights of notability as The Catcher in the Rye, while disclaiming that part of Catcher's fading popularity owes to the fact that the book is touted by the authority figures of coming-of-agers today, robbing it of its (for lack of a better word) rebellious appeal.

I like the article's summary of the situation. Catcher is indeed bogged down with issues relating to its age (both direct and circumstantial), a problem that BSG manages to avoid. We can see the drawn-out effects of the direct issues in how Portrait carries baggage from the Irish independence movement that requires footnotes every few sentences of certain sections. On the other end of the spectrum, Housekeeping effectively occurs in a vacuum other than Monopoly, magazines, automobiles, and trains.

However, while I thoroughly enjoyed Black Swan Green, I would not consider either it or Catcher the "coming-of-age cure-all". I don't see the need to hold one novel on a pedestal as "the coming-of-age novel of an era". Both Catcher and BSG hit home at points, but at the end of the day neither changed my life.

As an alternative, I would propose merely collecting the Coming-of-Age Greatest Hits. Some books may not directly document a coming-of-age journey, yet they could still take their place in the pantheon of "formative literature". Each book we have read in our course itself has brought its own subset of contributions to the table. The Bell Jar's primary focus was mental illness for at least half its run. Catcher itself only elapses over three days or so. Housekeeping is rich with understanding of transience, both in the natural world and personal world. I would personally nominate the works of John Green as exploring a number of issues associated with "growing up", including coming to grips with the truest loss of innocence, death. The collected advantages of sampling a variety of coming-of-age novels are the greatest strengths that our semester-long CoA course offers.