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Growing up is a present concern nowadays with children and children seeming to get in the adult world earlier and earlier and having to handle the obligations of grownups. When does a child become a grownup? For numerous the right answer is that it has nothing to do with age; it is identified by the behaviour. In this essay I will not go into the issue of when a kid turns into an adult however rather think about how the issue is treated in "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Citizen, "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D.
Salinger and "High Fidelity" by Nick Hornby.
From the point of view of growing up, the novels are rather similar. They are all from the viewpoint of the child, and we don't truly see too far what happens after the procedure of maturing, whether it ends up being an excellent thing or not. There are distinctions also, though: For example the main characters' mindset towards maturing.
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In High Fidelity, Rob wishes to grow up and get on with his life. He isn't pleased with his record store Championship Vinyl or with the truth that he has precisely two pals, his employees, Barry and Cock, who understand nothing about his individual life and his thoughts. Rob covets everybody who achieves success in life, and abhors individuals who host supper parties and speak about pet dogs' names and utilize pens with little lights when writing notes at the movie theater. He wishes to grow out of it, but doesn't understand how to; he requires the preliminary push which starts with Laura leaving him.
Contrary to this, Alex in A Clockwork Orange doesn't wish to mature.
He enjoys his life on the streets, robbing and beating people up. However, he makes a vital mistake, he lets his aspirations get the very best of him which results in his pals turning their backs on him and Alex has to go to prison. Since of his immaturity he wants to be the leader of his gang and that is the procedure that starts the maturing, against his will.
Adults are seen in quite the same way in all three novels. They are boring, dull and have no content in their lives. Rob doesn't tell his parents beforehand that he is coming to visit them; he relies on them being home because Casanova is on on television. Because they don't like videos, he assumes that his father would never miss it. He is astonished and even a little disappointed that his parents aren't just sitting at home, bored - but when he finds out that his parents are at a wine-tasting party next door, he is angry that they have a life. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden only sees children as genuine, reliable beings. Adults are "phony" and unreliable. In the world of these three novels, adults have almost stereotypical roles they are forced to. Society, especially youth culture, determines, that adulthood is not a desirable state, and everyone wants to avoid it. But however hard they try, all the characters still grow up. This conveys that becoming an adult is inevitable; try to make the most of it.
An interesting aspect to this question are the relative ages of the men in the novels. Holden is the youngest; he still goes to school, or at least should, and Alex is a little older than him. Rob is already in his thirties. You can see how the age affects the way the characters view growing up: Rob's view is that growing up is getting married, having children, and leading a happy life until one day you come home and you realise that your wife has cancer. He is afraid to settle down for fear of attaching himself too tight; he doesn't want to be shocked, he doesn't want to cry no matter who dies. Overall, growing up is seen as giving up on something. Alex loses his life on the street, Rob has to commit to Laura and Holden loses his barrier keeping him separate from the surrounding world.
In "The Catcher in the Rye", growing up is an issue throughout the novel and it is largely focused on Holden's surviving to adulthood. In the other novels, growing up is the conclusion, the solution. Alex starts dreaming of a son and chooses that over his new gang. Rob gets Laura back and puts his fears of losing her some day aside. In the end, no matter how badly the characters tried to resist it, they all grew up. It marked a start of a new era for them, and it seems like it was a good thing in the end.
Theme of a young person growing up. (2016, Jul 21). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/theme-of-a-young-person-growing-up-essay
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