Week 1 Lesson 1 VWO

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Coming of Age Literature

Week 1 

In class today

• Introduction to the theme
• Anticipation & Ideas
• What is Coming Of Age?
• Assessment
• Book choice
• Start reading

Objectives

At the end of this class:

• I will be familiar with the characteristics of Coming of Age Literature
• Will have chosen a novel to read
• Have started reading my chosen novel
• Know what and how I will be assessed

Coming of Age

Characteristics of the Genre 1/3

Includes a protagonist who is socially and psychologically maturing 

How have you matured (socially or psychologically) these past years?

Characteristics of the Genre 2/3

Includes a protagonist who makes discoveries about self and the world 

What have you discovered about yourself or the world?

Characteristics of the Genre 3/3

Includes a protagonist who experiences a turning point, a point of no return

• This turning point is the character’s transition from childhood to adulthood
• This can be an epiphany - when a protagonist experiences a realization, an  “aha!” moment that changes his/her thinking 

Bildungsroman

Coming-of-age novels are commonly called Bildungsroman or “formation novels” because they depict the intellectual or emotional development of a protagonist

When do you become an adult?

Rites of Passage

• Membership to a club or inclusive group
• Completion of a challenge 
• Overcoming an obstacle 
• Conquering a fear 
• Celebrating a birthday or an accomplishment 
• Acceptance by a program or group of people 

Assessment - what.

This theme you will be graded on  your understanding of:

•  Your chosen novel
• The Coming of Age genre
•  The use of literary devices

Assessment - How

A 5 paragraph essay about your novel

Topics/criteria will be provided next week

Book Options

1. Oranges are not the only Fruit
2. Catcher in the Rye
3. The Miseducation of Cameron Post
4. All The Pretty Horses
5. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
6. To Kill a Mockingbird
7. Persepolis
8. Vernon God Little

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit

This is the story of Jeanette, adopted and brought up by her mother as one of God's elect. Zealous and passionate, she seems seems destined for life as a missionary, but then she falls for one of her converts.

At 16, Jeanette decides to leave the church, her home and her family, for the young woman she loves.

Innovative, punchy and tender, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit is a few day's ride into the bizarre outposts of religious excess and human obsession.

Catcher in the Rye

The novel details two days in the life of 16-year-old Holden Caulfield after he has been expelled from prep school. Confused and disillusioned, Holden searches for truth and rails against the “phoniness” of the adult world.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Cameron Post feels a mix of guilt and relief when her parents die in a car accident. Orphaned, Cameron comes to live with her old-fashioned grandmother and ultraconservative aunt Ruth. There she falls in love with her best friend, a beautiful cowgirl. When she's eventually outed, her aunt sends her to God's Promise, a religious conversion camp that is supposed to "cure" her homosexuality. 

All the Pretty Horses

Young John Grady Cole, the last of a long line of Texas ranchers. Across the border Mexico beckons—beautiful and desolate, rugged and cruelly civilized. With two companions, he sets off on an idyllic, sometimes comic adventure, to a place where dreams are paid for in blood.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local "powhitetrash." 

When  back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is subjected to a traumatic event and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. 

To Kill a Mockingbird

'Shoot all the Bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a Mockingbird.' A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. 

Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the thirties. 

Persepolis

Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution;

 It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.

Vernon God Little

The life of Vernon Little, a normal teenager who lives in Martirio, Texas, falls apart when his best friend, Jesus Navarro, murders their classmates in the schoolyard before killing himself, and Vernon is taken in for questioning.

Book Options

1. Oranges are not the only Fruit
2. Catcher in the Rye
3. The Miseducation of Cameron Post
4. All The Pretty Horses
5. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
6. To Kill a Mockingbird
7. Persepolis
8. Vernon God Little