Adventures in Literature

Hi! From this one forward, all new blog posts will be for African American Literature, Fall 2021! All posts prior to this one are from the Coming-of-Age Novel in Spring 2021 :) Thank you for reading!

During the chapter “The Gangsters” in Colson Whitehead’s Sag Harbor , there is a particularly interesting moment during the BB gun fight where Benji stops to reflect on a firefly that he encounters. Alone in the night, Benji says: A firefly blinked into existence, drew half a word in the air. Then gone. A black bug secret in the night. Such a strange little guy. It materialized visible to human eyes for brief moments, and then it disappeared. But it got its name from its fake time, people time, when in fact most of its business went on when people couldn’t see it. Its true life was invisible to us but we called it firefly after its fractions. Knowable and fixed for a few seconds, sharing a short segment of its message before it continued on its real mission, unknowable in its true self and course, outside of reach. It was a bad name because it was incomplete一both parts were true, the bright and the dark, the one we could see and the other one we couldn’t. It was both. (184) I found thi...

One of the many amazing arcs of Jason Taylor’s narrative in Black Swan Green revolves around his general awareness and expectation of how the world works and how one lives their life. But deeper than that, I think this thread sets up an interesting situation where David Mitchell challenges the notion of “coming-of-age” as a whole. At the beginning of the novel, one of Jason’s only (or at least one of his biggest) concerns and goals is to do all that he can to be on top of the social hierarchy at school and to be welcomed by the “popular” group. This concept is apparent in several different places, but one example is once Jason gets invited to take the Spooks test. At this point, he is almost reaching his goal, mentions he would do anything to become a Spook, and feels on top of the world. Jason describes: Mum’d bought Maryland Chocolate Chip Cookies. They’re new and totally lush. I grabbed five, went upstairs, changed, lay on my bed, ate the biscuits, put on “Mr. Blue Sky” by ELO and p...

I was probably the only one who didn’t notice this right away, but as I was picking up my copy of Fun Home last week, I realized that Bruce Bechdel is the only member of Alison’s family that is not featured on the cover (for this particular edition of the book). This shocked me at first, seeing as the novel revolves so centrally around Alison and the relationship with her father, and I was very interested in what this design potentially implied. Then, as I looked through the pages of the novel again, I realized that a super similar image appears on the bottom of page 16, accompanied by the text “he used his skillful artifice not to make things, but to make things appear to be what they were not.” (The cover for my edition of the novel) Even though the family is relatively in the same position and their clothes and expressions are the same, we now get a wider version of the shot and discover that Bruce is the one taking this picture. I was again immediately interested in the specific ...

One of Esther’s most symbolic scenes during her time in New York comes right at the end. After finishing her internship and struggling with serious challenges that came to her in the city, Esther stands at the window of her hotel, the Amazon, and slowly releases pieces of her wardrobe into the wind of the night, one after the other. This scene is not only reflective of Esther’s mood after she returns to her hotel that evening, but it is symbolic of her entire time in New York and her struggles during her stay there. While the scene is powerful by itself and in its simplest form, I think that there may also be lots to unpack and analyze in these final paragraphs of Esther’s New York chapter. To narrate Esther’s experience, Plath first writes, “at that vague hour between dark and dawn, the sunroof of the Amazon was deserted” (111). This sentence helps to set the tone for the coming paragraphs and also sets a scene that is representative of much of Esther’s time and feelings in New York. ...

Right from the start of The Catcher in the Rye , we’ve been exposed to Holden’s distinct narrative style including his strong thoughts, opinions, and views of the world. We’ve seen that he calls most things “phony” and can almost always find something negative to say about others when he meets them. Even the people he seems to like at first, such as Ernest’s mother whom he meets on the train, he criticizes. However, there are three people that Holden has never, not even in his inner dialogue, said anything negative about: Jane, Allie, and Phoebe. What they all have in common is that Holden’s memories of them are all of childhood and the accompanying innocence and freedom. What Holden seems to believe is that when one becomes an adult, they only act to follow the meaningless conventions and expectations of society, or to earn money and recognition. However, children are free of this manipulation and the expectations, and they act genuinely to have a good life. Holden does not at all rel...

Staying Gold: A Coming-of-Age Journey of Discovery and Belonging When she was just 15 years old, H.E. Hinton began writing The Outsiders . Perhaps part of what makes this Bildungsroman from 1967 so compelling is that it came from a person who was coming-of-age herself at the time, making the story, experiences, and dilemmas during this narrative feel even more true and powerful. Following the story of Ponyboy, this novel is based in a world surrounding the conflict between the socioeconomically divided greasers and Socials, or the “Socs.” The lower-class and generally frowned upon greaser gang defines Ponyboy's entire life including his friends, enemies, actions, and appearance (most notably, his hair), which he appears to accept without question. At the start, Ponyboy is truly reliant on the greaser community, having lost both of his parents, and he mentions that he “doesn’t use his head,” which gets him into trouble but also becomes important in the pivoting moments of the story ...