What does Coming of Age mean?
The first time that I encountered the phrase "Coming of Age" was in the description of the movie "Breaking Away". My father was watching the movie while it was on TV, and I had nothing better to do, so I watched the last half with him. While we watched the scene where Dave races against the Italian cyclists, my dad explained to me how Dave had built up this image in his mind of these glorious racers and had completely immersed himself in Italian culture, wanting to become one of them. When the Italian racers see Dave catching up to them, they jam his tires and he crashes. He's shocked, and has to reconstruct his perspective on everything in his life in order to recover.
This setup and subsequent "punchline" (for lack of a better word) found in Breaking Away has stuck with me since then. In my mind, the words "coming of age" are tightly bound to this concept of the debunking of childhood ideals. Dave's obsession with these seemingly superhuman athletes is broken apart, so he must grow up and realign his direction in life.
As a result of that first experience with a "Coming of Age" story, scenes in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man where Stephen's thought processes are undermined stick out to me as the real story being told. For example, Stephen is presented in the first chapter as having a very binary way of approaching situations or ideas. But when Wells asks him a question, if he kisses his mother before he goes to bed, that has no real answer since Wells is just bullying him, Stephen.exe malfunctions. He's so used to there being a definite answer to everything, that any person, situation, or object can be described simply and discretely, that he's caught off guard. He's scared and confused--what was the right answer? This moment, where he learns the lesson that the world isn't a set of facts, is the first real step that Stephen takes into becoming the titular "Artist".
I'd like to extend this thought further into where we are now. As of Chapter 3, Stephen is obsessed with dark Romantic literature. He strives to be a Byronic hero or an Edmond Dantes. The mystery and romance of those characters appeals to the antisocial and quiet person he is right now. I think that this yearning to become this literary ideal will be shattered in the coming chapters. I haven't looked ahead at all, and I might be totally off, but from what I've learned from Breaking Away and the past few chapters, an influential and thought-provoking experience seems to be the main way that Stephen will develop as a character.
This setup and subsequent "punchline" (for lack of a better word) found in Breaking Away has stuck with me since then. In my mind, the words "coming of age" are tightly bound to this concept of the debunking of childhood ideals. Dave's obsession with these seemingly superhuman athletes is broken apart, so he must grow up and realign his direction in life.
As a result of that first experience with a "Coming of Age" story, scenes in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man where Stephen's thought processes are undermined stick out to me as the real story being told. For example, Stephen is presented in the first chapter as having a very binary way of approaching situations or ideas. But when Wells asks him a question, if he kisses his mother before he goes to bed, that has no real answer since Wells is just bullying him, Stephen.exe malfunctions. He's so used to there being a definite answer to everything, that any person, situation, or object can be described simply and discretely, that he's caught off guard. He's scared and confused--what was the right answer? This moment, where he learns the lesson that the world isn't a set of facts, is the first real step that Stephen takes into becoming the titular "Artist".
I'd like to extend this thought further into where we are now. As of Chapter 3, Stephen is obsessed with dark Romantic literature. He strives to be a Byronic hero or an Edmond Dantes. The mystery and romance of those characters appeals to the antisocial and quiet person he is right now. I think that this yearning to become this literary ideal will be shattered in the coming chapters. I haven't looked ahead at all, and I might be totally off, but from what I've learned from Breaking Away and the past few chapters, an influential and thought-provoking experience seems to be the main way that Stephen will develop as a character.
I really like this interpretation of coming-of-age, one that I hadn't considered before. My mind immediately jumped to belief in the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny in a lot of Western children's lives. I don't necessarily remember when I personally stopped believing in the tooth fairy (the Easter bunny was never a part of my life), but I definitely feel like I grew out of my childhood a little bit now that I look back. I think this period in life, when both us and Stephen are teenagers, is another time when certain things are debunked; for us, perhaps we redefine what happiness is for us, focus our interests on a single subject, etc. What that will be for Stephen, I can't say, but I'm really interested now.
ReplyDeleteFirst Breaking Away is a great movie. But I think you point out the really interesting repeating learning curve of coming-of-age, where you start to believe one thing or immerse yourself in a fantasy, only to have it broken apart. And then you emerge differently on the other end. This is sort of what happens at the end of chapter one, though, with the repetition of the playground scene. It's returning to something and having his revenge fantasy be short-lived, but he emerges from that chapter changed.
ReplyDeleteI thought about the idea of binary thought as child-like as well. Joyce presents Stephens binary tendencies early on and whenever it reappers, like in when he is in school, or after he confesses and becomes pure and innocent (and child-like).
ReplyDeleteBreaking away is an interesting perspective on coming of age. I like the idea that coming of age is related to no longer seeing the world in black and white. Early in the book we can see that Stephen has not yet come of age, and he sees the world in these binary terms. It's interesting to see throughout the novel how this idea is punctured.
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