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Comparing The War Of The Buttons, And Manhood For Amateurs

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“Young man, the secret of my success is that at early age I discovered that I was not God” (Holmes). The mind of a young boy can be a mystery to most, and only to a few can it truly be understood, but when a mind goes unchecked, it can show its deepest flaws. The works of The Great Santini, The War of the Buttons, and Manhood for Amateurs all display a deep understanding of what goes on in the mind of young men, and how boys and men act when there is no one else present to question their decisions. These works display many instances of violence and masculinity among boys, supporting the inevitability of the age-old belief that boys will be boys. The Great Santini provides many instances supporting the belief that boys will be boys. The first comes in …show more content…

The first example comes in his first essay, in which he asks, “If children are not permitted- not taught- to be adventurers or explorers as children, what will become of the world of adventure, of stories, of literature itself?” (Chabon 66). In this case he shows outright support for the fact that children should have time away from parents and be able to act in their own self interest. Not only that boys will be boys, but that children will be children, and we must allow that to flourish in order for them to become greater in touch with themselves. The second instance is in his second essay, in which he says, “Boys will be boys, and men will be men, and killing fields are killing fields… and you gang us up and look the other way and some kind of bad activity might very well occur to us” (Chabon 243). Chabon supports the inevitability of boys being boys and that it is just a walk of life. Supporting the regard of a hive mind of boys, he says that when boys join together bad things could happen, not because it is one single boys decision, but their collective disinterested interest in whatever they are

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