The moral of this story is that adults typically aren’t all that bad. In the decade that this story takes place, many children were distrusting of their parents. At the time of the 1960’s the Vietnam War was going on and teenagers were getting riled up about it. In this story both john and Lorraine have parents that don’t really provide the help that john and Lorraine need. John’s parents don’t really care about him, to add on, Lorraine’s mother is overprotective and cares more about how boys will treat her because her own husband left her. Mr. Pignati is the parent they never had and treats them very nicely. Instead of saying that they are hip or cool, he says that they are…
Growing up is generally not considered easy or desirable. In J.D Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is a sixteen year old boy on the precipice of adulthood. He is resisting growing up despite the allure of sex and alcohol, but he despises the thought of entering a phony world. For Holden, his life is stuck in a never ending cycle of misery, alcohol, and a desire to hold on to his childhood innocence. His own life up to this point has been very rough - his beloved younger brother Allie died of pneumonia, a classmate jumped out of a window, and he has gotten kicked out of yet another school. He yearns to be a protector of childhood innocence. It is only after beginning to accepting change, relinquish his protective instincts,…
Age define many things in life, for example, most elderly people would agree that in their lifetime their decisions shapes the person they are today. In this society some say that the older a person get the wiser as they grow older due to the experiences as well as their choices that were made while they are growing up. In the story “A&P” by John Updike, a young man name Sammy took huge risk to fight what he thinks is right. Sammy was influence by one particular customer that allow him to become more assertive did what he did. Sammy decision in this story provide him the confident to find himself through the times of him growing up to his own man even if his choices are redundant.…
The attorney is asserting Cole’s mother’s social life as a legitimate reason for her to forfeit the ranch her father had built from the ground up and worked so hard for. There is no such concern mentioned for the sixteen year old John Grady whom is interested in not only keeping the ranch, but running it himself. The adolescent stage of life in generally considered the pinnacle of social importance in society as adult relationships begin to form and develop. This is a very…
Adolescents have shown though emotion and action that someone can grown up way too fast and blow through everything not even realizing it. Since our society has changed so much over the past 60ish years, most kids have grown up, just as Holden did in The Catcher in the Rye, but still today we have this rebellion towards the older population. The teenagers of this century can still relate to the feelings of Holden and still will for…
“The Perpetual Adolescent” is an observational piece by Joseph Epstein. He suggests that modern adult acts much more childish than the previous generations of middle aged people. A big part of acting like a younger person is dressing like a younger person. According to Epstein, the dressed down adult is the immature adult, which in turn leads to many adults trying to copy the modern and hip youth culture. This in turn created more relaxed environments across all career fields, leaving less “true” adults. He feels that American now want to stay young forever instead of maturing into the adults of their parent's generations. Epstein believes that this mentality is flawed, leaving the people in positions of power striving to act like their children.…
Salinger’s novel, Catcher in the Rye, is one of the most striking examples of “coming of age” literature written to date. The struggle that comes with the process of growing up is one that everyone faces, and it is often one of the most trying times in a person’s entire life. One must begin to take on the many responsibilities that come with adulthood, and it can seem difficult to do so without losing the innocence and wonder that is so profound in childhood. Holden fears this change very much, but fighting it head on results in only physical and mental exhaustion. Holden comes to understand that growing up is not such a death sentence, and that if you go through with the right attitude, there is nothing to fear. In the words of C.S Lewis: “Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” Holden comes to understand that magic age lasts your entire life, and as long as one remembers that, one will be as innocent as the day they were…
The audience this essay was meant for are those of us who are at the in between stage in life. It can be that point where you are still in the mind set where you want to be a child, but also know that it is coming to that time where you know you will need to mature and become an adult. For example, the speaker says “[…] an unfamiliar nervous sound of the outboard motors. This was the note that jarred, the one thing that would sometimes break the illusion and set the years moving […]” (White 374). This essay could also be targeting those who are stuck in their ways and are trapped in their adult life and do not look back on their juvenile ways of the past. The speaker of this essay is very much stuck in his past and does not want to take notice of the fact that he is a grown man and not the child he often flashes back to. He seems to be stuck in the one area of his life he felt was the best part, so he appears somewhat immature, but has the beginning signs of becoming aware he is no longer that child, but an adult.…
Holden and Baby show their similarities and differences when they both have trouble maintaining relationships, transitioning into the adult world, and dealing with innocence. Maturity may take time to develop, and everyone has to learn how to become mature in their own way. Maturity can be taught, but has to be adapted in one’s life to fully be used. Maturity does not lead one to make the correct decision in all cases, but a decision that may solve their problem in that time. It can change how one views their…
J.D. Salinger explores the difficulties associated with the passage from youth to adulthood in his novel, The Catcher in the Rye. The author especially highlights the importance people staying connected to others in order to make a mentally healthy and successful life transition. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in the novel, is desperately clinging to his youth. Holden is obsessed with the phony nature of adults and judges the people around him based upon their degree of insincerity, two-facedness, and pretension. Holden is equally preoccupied with preserving childhood innocence. He is unable to sacrifice his purity in order to gain adult privileges. In fact, Holden is so disillusioned about adulthood that he eventually cuts off all ties in his life that could possibly help him through the transition of adolescence. Thus, the author, through Holden, explores the difficulties of this stage of life and how easy it is to stray from “the path” without “a village” to support this journey.…
Maturity, the point in a child’s life when they transform in many wondrous ways and gain much needed values. You don’t want to rush the process, nor do you want to try and enter the world without maturity because of the values you will need. By examining the novels Night and Sold we can see that maturity is the key to survival, which s important because often times people who don’t mature struggle in the world due to the lack of the necessary values that maturity brings with it.…
True maturity of a man did not occur from natural aging, but through making self-decisions, derived from their own understandings. Those understandings occur when free movement is released. However, it involves with uncertainties and doubts one must go through. There are times when people try to step over these uncertainties through bravery, but only few are successful at breaking the chains of fixed philosophies.…
A person in late adulthood is much more concerned with his long-term future, death, than someone in a younger life stage. Early in the film Ethel remarks that death is all Norman thinks about, to which Norman responds, death is the most fascinating thing he has to think about. Besides looking into the future and comprehending death, a person in late adulthood, looks back upon his life and if he is satisfied with his life, past and presently, he feels a sense of integrity. However, if the person is dissatisfied with his life he is in a crisis of despair. It is obvious Norman is not satisfied with his life when he begins to browse the newspapers in search of a job. Norman often appears mad at everyone around him, but this anger is really directed at himself. For example, in the fire scene, Norman yells at Billy but really Norman is mad at himself. Ethel points out to Billy that Norman yells to “remind himself he still can”. Norman feels powerless as his aged body betrays him. Although Norman was smart alek and grumpy throughout the movie, he was much more pleasant after bonding with Billy.…
Every person goes through a stage of growing up. During this stage, bad choices are made, emotions are out of whack, and obliviousness is a common thing. Older people sometimes forget what it is like to go through this, and question why the younger crowd makes some of the decisions that they do. What they also forget is that it takes experience, and listening to other people’s points of view to be able to be the person they are today. Coming-of-age involves recognizing different perspectives.…
Epstein also begins to compare the difference between these two eras and their lifestyles. In today’s life young people are working with, “strong safety nets of money under them… and with all options opened, they now swim in a sea of possibilities, and one of these possibilities in America is to refuse to grow up for a longer period.” This doesn’t seem fair to Epstein because in his time period the youth were getting jobs at the age of eight teen in order to support their family. He believes that this negative impact is the reason why many are immature today.…