Heidi's Coming of Age Blog

“Bildungsroman”, translated to Coming of Age novel, refers to a narrative that focuses on a character’s journey from childhood to adulthood, usually exploring their psychological and moral growth. In this class, we have read multiple novels from a complex range of characters from J D Sallinger’s Holden Caulfield to Alison Bechtel’s autobiographical through a graphic retelling. Most of these novels are critically acclaimed or are icons in the YA coming of age genre, but dare I say our most recent read Black Swan Green, truly is the first book we’ve read that actually has a character to come to age. Black Swan Green, a semi-autobiographical novel written by David Mitchell, tells the story of 13-year-old Jason Taylor through thirteen chapters, each representing one month from January 1982 through January 1983. Mitchell crafts a narrative where the protagonist doesn’t just survive adolescence, but rather grows from it.  At the beginning of the novel, Jason Taylor opens with his experie...

In Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, her father Bruce and her both struggle with OCD. Bruce has an odd fascination with renovating his home into a Victorian marvel. Alison counts the insignificant details, whether that be adding the same repetitive phrase to her diary to conceal the subject’s identity or counting the number of drops falling from a water faucet. Though different obsessions, they both show how control can affect one’s relationship with their family and identity.  Bruce’s OCD with Renovation and Organization The beginning of Fun Home opens with the story of Bruce’s renovation hobby, showing a Victorian mansion filled with antiques and aesthetics that Bruce has spent years refurbishing and reconstructing. It seems to readers that the only place Bruce truly finds peace is when he’s renovating. Yet, renovating is not a mindless hobby to Bruce. Renovating is an obsession. Bruce Bechdel’s obsession with renovating is not just a hobby or an aesthetic pursuit, but more of a manife...