Coming Of Age Essay

     Childhood is a time where children learn about the world around themselves. They see and experience many factors that influence their everyday lives, which help them grow stronger when they become adults. In 'Girl'; by Jamaica Kincaid and 'The Lesson'; by Toni Cade Bambara the characters within the stories learn valuable lesson with help them grow to become better individuals. In 'The Lesson'; the character of Sugar undergoes a realization that society does not treat everyone equally, that not every individual has the same opportunity and equality that they should have. In 'Girl'; the main character learns that she must be perceived as a woman and not as a slut, her mother brings to her

As a young person moves from childhood into adulthood there are many changes that they will face with freedoms, rights and responsibilities. These may include changes in their

For instance in Epstein’s study. The author makes a case that society’s attempt to treat a teenager as a child is limiting their ability to become an adult. He argues that part of the reason that young adults now struggle with growing up and assuming responsibility is because adults insist on infantilizing teenagers. His belief is that teens do and show tiny of what they are capable of because instead of learning to be responsible adults during adolescence, they continue playing as if they were still young children.

Summative - Write a literary analysis that develops an original thesis about the Coming of Age genre. Be sure to incorporate at least three stories.

Rituals around the world all teach valuable lessons that help initiates see the value and importance of life. Each culture has different rituals that provide experiences for their youth to learn these valuable lessons of life. Many coming of age rituals are intense procedures. The Amazon's Satere Mawé youth enter adulthood through the bullet-ant glove initiation, teaching courage and endurance, and the crocodile scaring ritual that the men from the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea participate in teaches them pain and accomplishment.

The adolescent individuals begin to reach sexual maturity and established their identity as an adult. This period marks the transition in which individuals think and reason. They also start to encounter conflicts between their family and their peers.

Childhood is a time where children learn about the world around themselves. They see and experience many factors that influence their everyday lives, which help them grow stronger when they become adults. In “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara the characters within the stories learn valuable lesson with help them grow to become better individuals. In “The Lesson” the character of Sugar undergoes a realization that society does not treat everyone equally, that not every individual has the same opportunity and equality that they should have. In “Girl” the main character learns that she must be perceived as a woman and not as a slut, her

This is a fictional story from the perspective of a male in his early twenties

Being an adult is the number one thing that children want to be: The desire to get older to do things that you want when you want and having no one say otherwise. However, what is an adult? An ambiguous term that really falls into the hands of the individual, where at Sixteen you can drive, eighteen you can vote, and twenty-one you can drink, for those in the USA, all varying ages that individuals could use as indications of adulthood. Robin Heinig wrote and article “What is it about 20- somethings?” where she discusses Arnett’s proposal about a new developmental stage, “Emerging Adulthood”. Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, an American professor in psychology, believes that we aren 't entering adulthood till the later portions of our twenties. For some, this may be true but for the general population including myself I find this hard to believe. Leo Hendry’s article, “How universal is emerging adulthood? An empirical example”, on emerging adulthood gives a deeper understanding to what this generation 's kids are going through. The late teens are a crucial part to the lives of a young adult. It 's the time that we spend trying to identify ourselves, escape the circumstance that we are put into at a younger age, or just had a better family income. Arnett is not wrong, but all other external factors need to be accounted for before we know, or even consider if emerging adulthood is a new developmental stage.

b. Adolescents are less dependent on their parents, and they begin to make major decisions on their own accord. For example, some adolescents choose to get part-time jobs to buy their own clothes and pay for some of their expenses.

Middle adulthood is a complex time period that requires a multidimensional outlook to understand all of the processes and changes that are taking place. The many changes during middle adulthood include physical, cognitive and social differences. Many of these changes create significant stress and it is important to understand ways of coping with the anxiety. Many of these coping mechanisms include mindfulness and cultivating a sense of self-efficacy and mastery (pg. 482). There are many changes during middle adulthood that may require stress management techniques and interventions.

"Middle age is when your classmates are so old and wrinkled and bald, they don’t recognize you". -Bennett Cerf     

Finally, it's important that a teenager grows up. Figuring out how to gain from their errors. When tracking, Sholzman says, "They won't grow up; they'll get stuck developmentally." A teenager needs to move away from being controlled by a parent. How far in life will a teenager go not knowing how to try new things to succeed or to fail.

From adolescence to late adulthood, our lives change drastically. Our goals, achievements and conceptions of life differentiate as we mature. As we grow older, we no longer concern ourselves with self-identity or the opinions of others, but instead we focus on our accomplishments and evaluate our life (if we lived a meaningful life). From adolescence to late adulthood, we experience different developmental tasks at a particular place in our life span.

Freedom. Youth. Two things often associated. We have the chance to explore, to work for our desires, and our choices. We are truly free to choose our own paths. As a teenager we get to find ourselves. We get to find the answers for our life. What we stand for, how we want to live our lives, it’s all a process of being free, and growing up. It’s simple, right?