Reference no: EM133426826

Adolescent literature is often categorized as a type of bildungsroman or, coming-of-age novel. Adolescence (coined as a term in 1904) itself s a 20th-century construction seen as a transitory stage, or training ground, between childhood and adulthood, where the adolescent must "test" the world, struggle through understanding him or herself but eventually arrive at a type of stasis in their life journey, or permanent identity. Indeed, almost all of our characters struggle to understand who they are, sometimes grappling with the very biological nature of their puberties, other times with the social pressures and constructions of what it means to be a teenager growing into a contemporary adult in the Western world. In their struggles, our teenage protagonists encounter obstacles with external forces and try to find themselves within established systems of power. As texts progress, themes of individualism and conformity often emerge. Often they must conform by the end of the book's events to a traditional trajectory of bildungsroman and ideas of self-growth and realization in relation to the larger world.

Prompt:
Understanding that self-growth and individualism vs. conformity may play out in different ways in our assigned texts, (The Catcher in the Rye and The Hunger Games) please 1) discuss TWO characters - one from each text - who struggle with these issues.

With this, 2) discuss their self-growth and conflicts through the 5 Stages of Story Arc/Plot, with correct usage of the Literary Terms.
Finally, through your analysis techniques 3) determine if the characters have similar experiences or divergent experiences in
relation to how they maintain individualism or how they eventually conform in their search for self-growth. Critically discuss how these experiences appear for the two characters you select. With all three sub-parts of this prompt, use specific textual details!