Abstract
This paper compares and critiques the autobiographies of Maya Angelou, Margaret Mead, and Thu Huong Duong. The paper discusses the coming-of-age theme in each book and offers a positive review of Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and Mead's "Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years", while suggesting that Doung's "Paradise of the Blind" does not satisfy the criteria for a successful autobiography. The paper contends that Mead's and Angelou's autobiographies expose the facts of the authors' lives to the reader, and thereby enlighten the reader, while Duong's autobiography does not achieve this objective.

From the Paper
"There are so many "coming of age" books in the English language, it is almost meaningless to refer as "coming of age" books to any work of fiction about growing up or to autobiographies that begin at birth and chronicle a life until at least, for argument's sake, the sixteenth year. One could include in the roster of English language coming of age books such transcendentalist works as Alcott's Little Women, The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, all the Nancy Drew mysteries, and other non-literary literature, as well as such mannered works as Pride and Prejudice (where coming of age happens beneath laced corsets topped with lacy petticoats topped with flowery language in short, far removed from the earthiness of the modern entries in the genre.)"

Tags:passage, youth, adulthood, maturity, writer, samoans, anthropology, divorce, sibling, loss, hang, culture

From the Paper
"This paper discusses Wally Lamb's novel, She's Come Undone, the story of the coming of age of Dolores Price. Born in 1952, Dolores marks much of her life by the glimpses of the outside world that arrive on her television screen. She watches impersonal events on her TV that seem to have nothing to do with the chaos and trauma of her own life. Lamb contrasts the parade of images on TV with two other images: a surreal flying leg, painted by her mother while she was being treated in a mental institution, and grey whales, who come to symbolize Dolores herself and her attempts to free herself. Lamb provides a first-person narrative of a woman's struggle with a painful adolescence, a serious eating disorder, and the challenge of learning to live her life. Dolores is a fascinating, difficult character, created by a male writer with an extraordinary.."

From the Paper
" This study will discuss how Anne Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi and Charley Trujillo's Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam affect our understanding of the 1950s and the Vietnam War, respectively. Both books are non-fictional coming-of-age narratives and both involve an awakening of the authors to the lies of the American Dream. Moody experiences the reality of racism in the United States in the 1950s, which were seen by whites as the years of the full realization of that Dream. Trujillo's accounts show the racism of the United States military, which was held up as an example of a fully integrated institution representing the equality symbolized by that Dream.

The latter part of Moody's autobiographical work carries her into the 1960s and the flowering of the civil rights movement, but the part of the book which deals with the 1950s highlights.."

From the Paper
"Three short stories, John Updike's "A&P", Frank O'Connor's "First Confession", and Ernest J. Gaines' "The Sky Is Gray," all deal with the coming of age of their young male protagonists. To one degree or another, the stories' protagonists experience an initiation of sorts into the harsher realities of life. This study will discuss the similarities and differences of the coming of age experiences of the three protagonists.

Sammy, the teenager in Updike's story, quits his job as a grocery store clerk as a sign of support for three girls who are insulted and demeaned by his boss, and as a result he recognizes "how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter" (Updike 67). James, the boy in Gaines' story, accompanies his mother to the dentist, experiences a number of harsh realities about life, particularly about the prejudice and hardships faced by blacks in..."

Abstract
This paper compares the works, "A&P", by John Updike, "The Man Who Was Almost a Man", by Richard Wright, and "Araby", by James Joyce. It takes the position that each story is a coming-of-age tale that gives us the assurance that all of us were once blind in our fears, ignorant in our faith, and extreme in our passions, and that we all have survived.

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
A critique of Anne Moody's book, "Coming of Age in Mississippi".

From the Paper
"Coming of age stories abound in both fiction and non-fiction texts. Regardless of the genre represented, such stories all purport to describe how seminal events, ideas and feelings contribute positively and negatively to the processes of adolescent development. Most high school graduates have at one time or another been exposed to J.D. Salinger's seminal coming of age story, "Catcher in the Rye", that fictionalized account of a young New York teenager's struggle to deal with his..."

Tags:Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi, civil rights

Abstract
This paper reviews the short story and concludes that rather than being a tale of a demonic and Satanic visitation, or a classic good versus evil tale, this Oates' work is a coming-of-age tale with very specific elements of sexual frustration. The paper claims that on the surface, this is a simple story of a girl fighting against leaving her father but deep down there are more Freudian and even Gothic themes to the tale. The writer claims that Oates has a fascination with the mundane and the Gothic, the ordinary and sensationalistic and therefore the underlying themes are indeed present.

From the Paper
"Later, while walking to a car with Eddie, she sees herself in this splendid description "Connie couldn't help but let her eyes wander over the windshields and faces all around her, her face gleaming with a joy that had nothing to do with Eddie or even this place" (Oates 471). On the way to the car, she glimpses Arnold Friend, a boy with "shaggy black hair, in a convertible jalopy painted gold" (471). Arnold makes a sign that there will be more, and Connie smiles and moves on."

Tags:literature, freud, gothic, coming, age, women, youth, love, flirt

Abstract
A paper which presents a detailed examination of history. Using Anne Moody's book, "The Coming of Age in Mississippi" where one can get a clear picture of what civil rights meant to many African-Americans, the writer of this paper discusses many aspects of coming of age and historical significance. The paper also discusses the themes of anger and black poverty in the book.

From the Paper
"Moody's legacy was relevant in the 21st century because without it the changes may never have taken place. The changes were slow in coming and without the anger and approaches that Moody took and encouraged others to follow we might still be in the ages before the civil rights movements and that would be a tragedy not only to the black population but to the entire nation for the contributions the world would be missing for keeping the blacks down and oppressed."

Tags:1960?s, Civil, Rights, movement, Martin, Luther, King

Abstract
This paper discusses the racial issues of adolescent alienation and abuse in Ann Moody's, 'Coming of Age in Mississippi'. The author discusses gender and role issues, the social setting and racial identity through her own experience revealing the painful, personal experiences of rejection or acceptance.

From the paper:

"Moody's writing is a painful autobiography of the strains in the relations that she felt while growing up. The social setting was such that the blacks and whites had separate identities but while the whites had their self respect the blacks were still in the process of realizing what there role really was. This created a tension in the interactions between the two nations that was exacerbated by the racist issues that were prominent in their lives. Further, being black women she was first suppressed due to her gender and then her race. Thus, she shows that as a woman in a black society her role became even more dubious."

Tags:society, internal, conflicts, independence, sexually, harassed, family, rejection, abuse, poverty, violence, racism