Mt. Tam On A Dark Fall Night Analysis

At some point everyone wants to be a “grown up,” you can do everything you want, right? Sooner or later we all learn that growing up isn’t as great as it seems and we then strive to have the innocence and lack of responsibility that we were once so eager to give up. There is a lack of control felt by teenagers, everyone wants to help shape their future, but nothing feels quite right to them at the time. Growing up is a painful and confusing time for almost everyone. In the famous coming-of-age novel The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger convincingly communicates the painfulness of growing up through symbols including, the ducks in the Central Park Lagoon, the Natural History Museum, and The Catcher in the Rye.

“I think one of the defining moments of adulthood is the realization that nobody 's going to take care of you. That you have to do the heavy lifting while you 're here. And when you don 't, well, you suffer the consequences.” Adam Savage. When times are tough you should not give up. And you always are not going to have someone to pick you up when you need help. You also are not going to have someone telling you where and what to do with your life. Holden Caulfield has trouble with the transfer from childhood into adulthood. He needs to ask people what he should do and where he should go because he does not know what he needs to go to make that leap. Holden uses the ducks in the lake as a metaphor as himself and where he should go. In Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger uses ducks in order to show growing up is a confusing time for adolescents.

In the memoir This Boy’s Life, the author, Tobias Wolff explains and shows how both your peers and parents have a big effect on your life.

People pass through different stages of development throughout their lives. In the process of this, many changes are experienced that affect the life course. There are various theories as well as theorist to choose from in order to gain a greater knowledge of an individual’s development. In this paper I will analyze the Life Course Perspective and Levinson’s Theory of Seasons of Adulthood. After analyzing these theories, I will apply the concepts of The Life Course Perspective and Levinson to my father’s life.

Levinson theory conceptualises the basic pattern of the life structures that humans go through in their adulthood. The pattern comprises of an orderly sequence that manifests with variations. The sequence of stages consist of alternating series of structure-building and structure-changing (Transitional) periods. During the structure building phase, one makes choices, forms structures around them, and pursues their values and goals within this structure. The transitional phase that follows, terminates the existing structure and creates the possibility for a new one. The primary tasks of every transitional period is to reappraise the existing structure, to explore possibilities for change in the self and the world, and to move toward commitment to the crucial choices that form the basis for a new life structure in the ensuing period. Levinson divides adulthood development into stages or phases.

As adolescences enter adulthood, they enter a long transitional period, often known as “emerging adult”. This transitional period takes place over a range of 18 to 25 years old (Santrock, 2013). At this stage, emerging adults are still in exploration in the various aspect of life such as the career path they are interested in, defining their identities and a style of living they would want to adopt. Thus, adolescences who are in transition will be caught with many intense changes and will experience major life events that are all of great importance.

A multi-colored bean bag goes up, and then it comes back down. And then another. Up and down. And then another. Up and down. The balls fly through the air with effortless rhythm and a faithful pattern. I can feel my heart beating. In this moment, I know I’m alive.

Sherman Alexie, the author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part - Time Indian, was born on October 7, 1966, near Spokane, Washington. He was born with hydrocephalus, which means there is too much cerebral spinal fluid inside his skull. Living on the rez, or the reservation, there isn’t much of an opportunity to get a good education. Alexie was determined to have some change in that. And he did, by transferring from the school in the rez, to the all white school in Reardan, which was 22 miles away. Sherman Alexie uses his personal cultural experiences to form the character Junior in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part - Time Indian. Junior grows up on the Spokane Indian Reservation just like his author. Like Alexie, Junior also has medical problems he has to face, wants a better education which causes a loss for Junior, and the struggle of alcohol abuse with friends and family members.

I was a quiet, introverted child and I kept small, watertight social circles, as if I was a deadly secret that couldn’t be allowed to reach the public eye. My only pastimes were solitary; reading and telling myself imaginary stories. I didn’t mind taking long drives; I could perch in my car seat, face pressed up against the glass, and watch the trees, buildings, cars, and people fly by like a dream lost when waking. I never thought that I could be one of those people, that I could participate in the pattern of life.

As a child I realized I was quite different from others, from my name to my skin tone. I also realized that my learning skills were different, my reading ability was different, and something’s it took me long to grasp. I didn’t really come from a well off family, but I didn’t mind, even when

As a child, one day you wake up and go outside to play for the last time without realizing it. At the moment it seems as if life is just happening until looking back and realizing how much maturity and growth you’ve encountered as an individual.

Growing up and becoming mature does not just involve people getting taller, or their voice getting deeper. Although these things are true, people develop other qualities as they come-of- age. Coming-of-age involves recognizing different perspectives.

Many developmental psychologists associate transitional periods of development with developmental crises (Caplan 1964, Levinson 1978, Sheehy 1977). For these scientists the terms “Transitional periods” and “Developmental crises” are synonymous. For us “Developmental crises” is a general term for different types of normative stressful periods of development (Khudoyan 2004) and there are crises, which are caused not by transitions from one developmental stage to another (for example, some developmental crises are determined by reconstruction of self- consciousness). Therefore, we prefer to use the terms “transitional periods” or “transitional crises” without identifying them with the general

‘Life has many ways of testing a person’s will. Either by having nothing happen at all, or by having everything happen at once.’

Recently, there is a controversial debate on what is adulthood and whether or not a certain age help considers individuals as adults. On one hand, one argues that age helps people recognized individuals as an adult. In “Let Them Drink at 18, With a Learner’s Permit”, John M. McCardell Jr. thinks that 18 years old young people are considered young adults. In “Brain Maturity Extends Well Beyond Teen Years”, Sandra Aamodt said individuals don’t reach maturity until the brain is fully developing at about age 25. On the contrary, one argues that going through adulthood is different for everyone because their paths and definitions of adulthood are different. In “ Who is an adult”, Jennifer L. Tanner Ph.D. stated that going through adulthood is different