Thus, all heroes on a journey encounter dangers that they must overcome. The hero must leave the safety zone of the known world and enter into the danger zone. It is here that he faces many of his fears and challenges. This is analogous to parents cutting the apron strings, so the child may enter the unknown world on his own and face challenges in life in order to gain maturity. After the hero has completed his challenge, he returns to the known world and brings a valuable lesson.
“Coming of Age” in Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield Abbé Dimnet, author of The Art of Thinking, once said, “Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves” (qtd. in Guillemets and Chesterton). In life, parents take it upon themselves to provide their children with a proper education, whether it is through church, school, or their own experienced knowledge. Surely this education is important in the development of a child; however, only through personal experiences will the child learn to form opinions for him/herself, rather than reiterating the thoughts of their elders. As education enhances one’s knowledge and serves as a model for one’s ability to make mental observations, Dimnet describes education as a process of expansion of one’s inner self through personal experiences.
The family life cycle theory is based on the idea that children must be separated from their family of origin in order to become physically and emotionally capable to think on their own and make independent decisions. It also is focused on the idea that change and development rely on crisis. During adolescents parents need to provide opportunities for their children to make some decisions on their own. Parents also need to accept their child’s wishes regarding a career choice and new intimate relationships; when this happens both the child and the parents can move on to a new stage of their lives. In this theory, three things must be done in order for an individual to reach this stage of their lives.
Chapter 1: “Every Trip is a Quest” Foster states the essential criteria for a quest: a character to embark on the quest, a destination, the initial reason for reaching the destination, difficulties faced on the way, and the actual reason to reach the destination. The character many times does not complete the initial assignment, instead achieving an increased understanding of themselves, which Foster explains is always the actual reason for a quest. Because of this, the protagonist is normally young and has not gained independence. The initial reason usually wanes with progression of the story. “Had I a right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations?...I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price perhaps of the existence of the whole human race.” (Shelley 114-115) Assuming that Frankenstein’s quest was to create another being to accompany his monster so that the monster would leave Frankenstein’s loved ones unscathed, his initial assignment was uncompleted as he tore apart the being he was making.
He lives at home!" (Haegele), implies a strong disdain from the author at the idea of being an adult living under their parents’ roof. Each of these lines from the first two paragraphs is used to evoke a sense of self-determination and pride that is familiar to most people that have grown up and left the parental nest and it is summed up simply with the line “I wanted my own place” (Haegele). The next important line in the reading creates the first subtle transition in tone from determination to more of an accomplished and joyous mood with a dash
The Alchemist is a unique book about finding ones place in life. This book is a story of a boys’ journeys and struggles in life, it describes how he over comes his struggles in order to find his treasure. “Life Ain’t Always Beautiful” has a common theme as The Alchemist. This song tells one that even though life has struggles you can overcome them. All in all The Alchemist and “Life Ain’t Always Beautiful” have similar themes in which one sees the hardships in life, but finds the strength to overcome them.
After many hardships, adventures, and troubles, Charlie even sets out with the other children, including the Maywits, to build their own camp. This was to escape the stress and tremendous pressure that Allie puts on his entire town of Jeromino. In this camp called “The Acre,” the children learn survival skills, how it must have felt to be a normal child in America and how it feels to be Allie regarding building up a civilization and taking care of it. This area was the children’s paradise mainly because of Allie’s ignorance of its existence. Towards the end of the novel, “The Acre,” ends up saving the family because of its plentiful food and water supply.
Therefore the questioner leaves his comfort zone, and journeys into the unknown to seek an answer. There, in the new world, his old beliefs are proven wrong as he wrestles with calamities that confront him. This process transforms the journeyer, and in the end, the journeyer always come out of the journey different than he was before. Stephen Kumalo and James Jarvis both undertake many journeys in Cry, the Beloved Country, and they develop and change. Kumalo and Jarvis’s journey start from opposite beginnings, but brings them to a common understanding.
Individualism is an important theme of the Transcendental movement. An individual needs to demonstrate original thoughts, develop his own moral values, and display independence in order to achieve inner growth and fulfillment in life. In Emerson and Thoreau’s philosophical writings, the authors agree that in the transition from childhood to adulthood, man loses his individuality which negatively affects his life, and that reclaiming individualism by avoiding societal conformity and living a person’s own experiences is critical to personal growth. Yet, both authors present contrasting thoughts on how this individualism may be achieved. Emerson and Thoreau agree that in the transition from childhood to adulthood, man restricts original thoughts and actions so that he may be accepted by others, which impedes his individual growth.
Wright defines his young character through the culmination of many events in which Richard chooses to resist being stuck by the limitations set by everyone above him: age, class, standard, and knowledge. Wright exposes a more significant allegory reflecting Richard’s deeper strength and passion to succeed unconventionally, through the lens of each small battle and conflict he faces against the southern community. Metaphorically also representing Richard’s journey to reach such powers within him are the encounters in which he must challenge authority depicted through his struggles to extricate himself from their trap and achieve his goal in life. Wright remembers,