Abstract
This paper discusses the coming of age of character's within Mark Twain's 1885 "Huckleberry Finn," Jane Austin's 1816 "Emma" and Chaim Potok's 1972 "My Name is Asher Lev." It particularly compares and contrasts the conflict, setting and supporting characters in each of these novels in order to show how Mark Twain (Samuel Clements), Chaim Potok and Jane Austen developed the theme of personal growth in their writing.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Thesis
Conflict
Character
Setting
Conclusion

From the Paper
"Emma Woodhouse is not driven by the same kinds of conflicting societal forces as haunt Huck and Asher. However, her relationships with a number of characters complicate her views of herself and in the end lead to her growth as a person. In Emma's case it is recognition that others must be accepted for who they are, not what we wish them to be or for their social station in life. Where early in the novel Emma is absorbed in herself and her assumptions about others, at the end of the novel we see her state, "Oh! No - what an impudent dog I was! - How could I dare" (Austen, 1999, p.443). Her friend Harriet, as an example, is a character about whom Emma made many assumptions, such as that she was born of wealth and should not marry below herself. In the end Emma must recognize that Harriet is the daughter of a tradesman - one does not need to be born of wealth. In an age where people commonly accepted that one's character was based on one's birth, for Emma to view the others uncritically represents a growth not unlike Huck's ability to accept Jim as an equal or for Asher to accept himself as an artist of non-Jewish themes."

Tags:conflict, setting, plot, society

Abstract
The process of "becoming" a woman is one that Simon de Beauvoir expressed in her famous quote "One is not born a woman; rather, one becomes a woman." This phrase indicates that a woman is not born but rather is someone that develops into herself over time. Literature expresses this process in the theme of coming of age, where characters undergo a transformation from childhood to womanhood through experiencing various ordeals. This paper explores the theme of coming of age in three short stories: The stories that shall be examined are "No Name Woman" by Maxine Hong Kingston, "She Wasn't Soft" by T. Coraghessan Boyle, and Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl".

Tags:coming, of, age

Abstract
This paper discusses how Anne Moody, author of the autobiography "Coming of Age in Mississippi", and the character Jurgis Rudkis, in "The Jungle", by Upton Sinclair, are both people who greatly suffer from the oppression of society. It looks at how both books were written with the purpose of exposing the torment that the lower class (whether it be immigrants or blacks) must endure, and how both books call for a change in society. It concludes that these two characters, Anne Moody and Jurgis Rudkis are both on a search for freedom from oppression.

From the Paper
"In Anne Moody's autobiography, she tells of growing up in Mississippi in a very poor, African American family. Her family lives in a shack on a plantation with no electricity or water. Jurgis also lives in very humble conditions, the slums of Packingtown. The two characters work unbelievably hard. Jurgis works in horrid conditions in a meat packing plant with long hours, only to come home and be so cold that he needs to sleep with his clothes on. Anne begins working at a very young age in a house-cleaning job that is little better than slavery. Both Anne and Jurgis are constantly struggling to keep their stomachs full. "

Tags:Jurgis, Rudkis, freedom, oppression

Abstract
A discussion paper, comparing the concept of "coming of age", or the gradual awareness of a personal identity, through three specific novels. Novels are "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse, "Surfacing" by Margaret Atwood, and "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cineros.

Abstract
The paper analyzes the theme of coming of age within this study of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "Treasure Island". The paper discusses how the main character, Jim Hawkins, must learn to outgrow his youthful fancies for adventure by realizing the real mortal danger that he must undergo as a mate of the Hispaniola. The paper relates that not only must he learn to understand the dangerous actions of the mutineers he faces, but he must also rely on his own personal initiative to survive and resolve the place of the hidden treasure.

Tags:island, treasure, pirates

Abstract
This paper looks at "Lives of Girls and Women" by Alice Munro and "Who Has Seen the Wind" by WO Mitchell and considers how their main characters grow through the experiences they have in their coming of age stories. The two books are reviewed to the extent that key details are necessary to make the case that the characters come to be better people through confronting the world around them and their understanding of that world.

Tags:literature, analysis, characterization

Abstract
This paper deals with three coming of age novels: James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", Herman Hesse's "Siddhartha" and Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God". It looks at how each novel has a main character who begins facing the challenge of realizing one's self up to a turning point where discovery of one's self plays an important role in the development of the character. It analyzes how although the main characters in each of these novels come from a different cultural background and social situation, they are all faced with family expectations and are taught to live within those expectations. It shows how it is the quest of finding one's self which causes each character had to break away and experience new situations to discover their niche in life.

From the Paper
"In Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, the main character, goes through a similar process Stephen and Siddhartha went through, straying from the expected to find her own path in life. As an African-American woman living in the late 1930's, Janie was taught by her Grandmother (who ended up rearing her) to make a better life for herself than her parents and grandparents had done for themselves. Her grandmother's expectations of her marrying a financially well-off husband with suitable economic conditions played a dominant role in Janie's life for the next forty years. During this time, she married Logan Killicks (who owned a vast amount of land), but was not able to find happiness, so she ran off and married Joe Starks, who eventually became a well-off mayor with a lot of power. During these two marriages, Janie played the role of the passive wife and existed in a life void of true love."

Tags:discovery, expectations, family, culture, self

Abstract
This paper examines how the two young women who are the subjects of the coming of age novels "Lucy", by Jamaica Kincaid, and "Small Island", by Andrea Levy are complicated characters. The paper compares the main protagonists in the stories and explains that Jamaica Kincaid's novel is told from the perspective of Lucy, the main character in the novel, and focuses only on Lucy's, as seen from her own perspective. The paper then looks at how in "Small Island", the character of Hortense is contextualized more fully, with the perspective and history of her husband, her landlady and her landlady's husband also being represented--and giving more perspective to her own, by surrounding it. The paper then points out that the background of race and post-colonial features strongly in these insights about difference, but the impact of these two novels is even further-reaching -- it is an impact which has everything to do with what it means to be human.

From the Paper
"Both Hortense and Lucy are highly unpleasant people. Spoiled, selfish, self-absorbed, with a sense of entitlement that confounds belief, they are supremely uninterested in anyone other than themselves, and unable to see the suffering of others with any empathy. Hortense is convinced that she is special because of her golden skin and her well-known father. She has completely absorbed the colonial indoctrination of her education and believes herself to be truly English, and therefore above her home country and its people. In fact, upon arriving in England it becomes clear that she considers herself more English than the English."

Tags:colonial, race, charaterization, home, counrty

Abstract
This paper compares the coming of age within three works - "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera and the film "Sugar Cane Alley," written and directed by Euzhan Palcy. It analyzes the political and social structure in each of these works and describes how they affect the relationships between the younger and older characters.

From the Paper
"The shifts in lightness and heaviness in this novel are complex and at times difficult to understand, and the political element that is seen here is also more complex and in some ways more specific than what is seen in The Kite Runner or Sugar Cane Alley. In this novel, the events of what is known as the Prague Spring serve as backdrop, a time when the Soviet military occupied the city and made it known that the people of Poland were not in control of their own destinies. Tomas had once condemned the Communists and so is asked to leave the city, and he and Tereza travel to Switzerland. When they later return to Prague, it is with the knowledge that they will never be allowed to leave again."

Tags:generation, experience, friendship

Abstract
This paper explains how each book focuses on characters who are "coming of age". The author points out that, in each case, an individual attempts to understand their private self in a public world. 6 pgs.