Looking through a list of books I’ve read, I was struck by how many Coming of Age novels I’ve read. These are stories of young characters who go through life’s trials and tribulations that are painful but necessary if we are ever to mature—to “come of age.”
As I considered this genre, I wondered if some of the immature behavior we’re seeing from many of today’s young adults is because parents and our liberal society have decided that it is too “stressful” for young people to have to grapple with any pressure at all.
For example, learning requires pressure, so misled adults make school easier. Educational leaders have removed the challenges like having to pass classes by decreeing that “everyone passes.” They’ve removed rewards for successful students so that the less successful ones won’t feel bad. Politicians propose to pay off college loans to remove the pressure of a financial obligation. Parents solve their children’s problems for them.
So the kids get older but never wiser. They grow up stress free, but they can’t mature into adults who will be able to take the stress off their own children. How would they, if they never learned to deal with stress themselves? It’s a self-perpetuating problem.
These “snowflakes” need to delve into the Coming of Age novel. I can recommend several.
Mark Twain’s American classic Huckleberry Finn, which was required reading before many school districts decided that it was either “too hard” or that it dealt with black-white relations in a way they didn’t like and banned it, is the iconic Coming of Age story.
Huck must come to grips with parental inadequacy and violence when he realizes his drunken father will kill him. He runs away with his friend Jim, a slave fleeing his master. Together, they encounter human cruelty, the effects of a corrupt society on individuals and the curse of slavery.
Huck demonstrates maturity when he decides to help Jim escape because it is the right thing to do, though he must go against his culture’s teaching that he will lose his soul if he does so. The concept is false, but it is what he has been taught so Huck becomes willing to sacrifice his soul to save his friend. He is still a young teenager at this point, but he has “come of age” through stress.
Wonder by R. J. Palacio is a child’s novel with very adult themes. It’s the only book my granddaughter chose to read twice in high school.
Its main character, Auggie Pullman, is a young teen who has been homeschooled to protect his feelings from reactions to his severe facial deformity caused by a birth defect. But he has decided to attend a public middle school.
Auggie endures the shocked looks and criticism of students and faculty in addition to negotiating through the ordinary trials of that life stage. But despite the emotional pain, Auggie grows from the experience. He makes friends and finds a place for himself in life, accepting the fact that there will always be those who reject him but that there are kinder people in the world who will judge him for his heart. His painful situation, which he can’t change, becomes his door to maturity when he stops trying to protect himself.
At the end, Auggie can say, “Everyone deserves a standing ovation because we all overcome the world.” If we’re forced to grapple with it, that is.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is told by a 14-year-old Native American, Arnold Spirit, Jr., known as Junior.
He lives on the Spokane Indian reservation, where he has always attended the reservation school. But he considers it substandard and opts to transfer to a largely white public school off the reservation. Because he is not only a Native American but also suffers from hydrocephalus, which causes seizures, poor vision and speech problems, he, like Auggie, encounters prejudice and criticism. But through experiencing a more challenging environment, he learns that he can also compete and overcome those challenges.
In his culture on and off the reservation, Junior sees alcoholism, poverty, bullying, violence and sexuality.
Because “snowflakes” mustn’t know that such conditions exist, the book has been banned in some schools. But these are things that every child eventually must confront and deal with, not avoid and ignore, if they hope to mature.
Settle down under your reading lamp with these acclaimed novels, Snowflakes, and you’ll learn what it takes to grow up.
