The film Juno (directed by Jason Reitman) follows the story of a sixteen year old girl called Juno, becomes pregnant after having sex for the first time with her best friend, Paulie Bleacker. Juno is faced with the ultimate decision of keeping the baby, putting up for adoption or having an abortion. She decides to have an abortion but does not go through with it. After informing her parents of the accidental pregnancy, she decides to put the child up for adoption. She chooses a young couple (Mark and Vanessa) in there early thirties. After all the adoration papers are signed. She keeps Mark and Vanessa informed of doctors appointments and news. During the middle of the pregnancy Juno and Paulie end their…
Many can remember the transition into what parents coin as the scariest part of raising kids. There are signs of it happening, such as late nights coming home without calling, deciding not to do chores that are expected of them, or simply not communicating as much as before. Positive signs can come about as being more responsible, but usually it is more self-concerned. In John Updike’s “A & P”, he illustrates the situation of how a young man evaluates his life and makes a decision to think on his own. Many young people go through this process, but the way they handle it can affect them for a lifetime.…
At multiple points in life, people are faced with judgments ranging in difficulty and significance. And every decision could be affected by outside influences which could persuade people to make a choice. Sometimes, one is faced with the choice of which juice to drink in the morning, a very minute decision to make. There are other, more substantial decisions like choosing which college to attend or whether or not it is the right time to buy a home. Depending on the size of the decision and influence, everything that happens in one’s life could be crucial moments that determine the final outcome of one’s life. This was seen in Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima and Bernard Malamud’s The Natural. Both author’s used the main characters to show that one’s future is determined by the choices made throughout life, and the outside influences that guide the choices. Anaya and Malamud use other’s expectations, other’s guidance, and decisions made as significant points that help determine the outcome of the main character’s future.…
Maturity is one’s ability to respond to their environment appropriately, which is gained by learning from experiences and situations in life. On the surface, maturity would seem to always accompany age, because one learns to react to their surroundings over time. However, Buddy and his peers in Tom Perotta’s, Bad Haircut, prove that this is not always the case. The story travels through Buddy’s adolescence, and shows differences in how he and his friends make decisions under certain circumstances. Even though Buddy is less experienced, he is more mature than some of his peers.…
All three films contain modern issues faced by the characters that may not have been widely talked about in earlier years as openly as they are today. Ideas such as personal growth and physical change are both important characteristics of the genre. This new type of sub-genre relies on dialogue between the characters based on emotional responses (Benyahia et al, 271). In the “Revisionist Coming-of-Age” genre, the protagonist is forced to make decisions about the future and can been seen through present day emotional responses and actions. Many of the major decisions faced in current day coming of age stories include dilemmas and choices between family, friends, education, work and…
She knows that even though she had wished she could be more like her friends growing up, she would not change anything about her life because it made her who she was today. She was a responsible adult who was able to manage her time wisely. “Though I hated it growing up, working on the farm has taught me many lessons about life, and it has shaped me into the individual I am today.” (Hemauer,…
Heather O’Neill demonstrates how the main character, Baby, losing her innocence at such a young age, resulted from the choices she made, and the choices…
My literary analysis will focus on the comparison between the short story “Good People” by David Foster Wallace and the contemporary film “For Keeps” written by Denise DeClue and Tim Kazurinksy. “Good People” and “For Keeps” feature two young unwed couples who are forced to face the reality of unprotected sex. With the unexpected conception of a child, both couples struggle to make the disheartening decision of abortion.…
Becoming a parent is something most people see in their future, however it often comes at the wrong time for some people. In Ernest Hemingway’s, “Hills Like White Elephants”, we see a couple’s conversation as it leads up to the decision they are making on whether or not to have an abortion. With the white elephants representing a metaphor for the unborn child, we are able to see the struggle of a couple trying to make a decision on whether to keep the child or not, through which it is apparent that the two of them as a couple don’t communicate properly and the girl does not normally know how to make her own decisions.…
In the movie Juno, the title character, Juno, is only 16 and get pregnant. In this unexpected situation she struggles on deciding what to do with the child. Similar to what Ruth goes through when her unplanned pregnancy arises. She initially wants to get an abortion even though at this point in time that is illegal; she even goes as far as putting a deposit on one.…
To some people a baby can be the best thing that ever happened to them, but then there are others who have decisions to make. They will go through an important stage in any relationship, the make it or break it stage. The two stories that I will be analyzing will be “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin and “Hills like White Elephants” by Earnest Hemingway. In both stories the characters found out how babies can be a deciding factor in a relationship, and that’s what I will be focusing on.…
As I mentioned previously, I grew up in a culture that abhorred the thought of “babying” their offspring, an activity that most helicopter parents willfully partake in. Most Bermudian fathers even seem bothered by offering their sons any semblance of comfort when they’re upset. So the vast majority of adolescents that I have met over the years after probably some of the most confident and self-assured people I’ve ever known. They have no problem making their own decisions, even though some result in terrible consequences that no one ever seems to learn from. We’re like baby birds that have been pushed out the nest far sooner than we were ready for and although we can fly in some way, we never again learn to rely on others around us. We often become “adults” earlier on in life, leaving college as a pointless experience because we already have everything figured out. Our lives can become filled with deep regrets at not having enjoyed our childhoods a little more thoroughly. Perhaps, rather than helicopter parenting and hardly parenting at all, children and adolescents alike need something in between that can produce a self-sufficient generation that’s wiser and less regretful.…
In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, a young girl struggles with the line between life and death and is caught in the midst of a life changing decision that will inevitably end the relationship between her and a man. As people we tend to over think and analyze every possible outcome or scenario when it comes to making an important decision that could potentially impact our entire future. The girl relates to this as the persistent acknowledgement of her unborn child nags at her and the forthcoming fatality of life as she knows it wraps her into a sea of doubt.…
“Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person 's character lies in their own hands” - Anne Frank. (Frank, 2012)…
Coming of age is a topic of fiction. There is no event or moment that can fully transition someone’s life from adolescence to adulthood. The transition to adulthood is a long process in which the person develops a different pattern of thoughts and actions that represent maturity and responsibility. My journey to developing an adult like, winner mentality from an immature state of mind begins with me overcoming my struggles in the pool and and with my academic future.…