HISTORY AS FICTION

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The Hidden Unhappiness of Mrs. Dalloway

 One thing I saw when I was reading Mrs. Dalloway were the subtle hints that Mrs. Dalloway makes about her happiness. For example, whenever she talks about her husband Richard, she almost always does it in a critiquing manner. Very rarely does she say good things about him. She says that she is comfortable with him (financially) and that he gives her a good life, but the passion is missing. She talks about other love interests in a way that shows that she doesn't love Richard in a true way. She isn't truly happy with Richard.      Another example was when Peter Walsh asks her if she is happy and, just by "coincidence", Elizabeth walks in and interrupts the conversation before she can answer. This is a very interesting touch because that way we don't actually get a definite "yes or no", and we can continue to wonder if she is truly happy. Another place in the book where we see a little hint of this is on page 36, where she says- "She had just broken ...
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Harry's Coming of Age

The Harry Potter series is known everywhere as being one of the best fictional stories ever written (the best, in my opinion). They are also a coming of age story. In my opinion, the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,  is the culmination of Harry's coming of age.  The first big coming of age aspect of this novel is the romantic relationship that Harry forms with Ginny Weasley. He starts to develop feelings for her, and they end up together. He has never experienced anything like this before, and romantic relationships are a very big part of "growing up". He also shows his growth as a teenager through jealousy of Dean Thomas, Ginny's boyfriend at the beginning of the book. Again, he's never felt this way before, so this is a very big part of coming of age. The second way Harry comes of age is by mourning a loss. Even though he is an orphan, he has never grieved for anyone before. This changes in the Half-blood Prince. Harry's godfather, Sirius ...
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Jason's Coming of Age

     I know this is a broad topic, but I thought it was important to address Jason's broad coming of age in this book, and, more specifically, the ways in which we can tell. His behavior changes a lot from the beginning to the end. At the beginning, we can tell that he is uncomfortable, immature and scared to speak up, even when other people are hurting him. However, he goes through many growth experiences throughout the book that open his eyes, the most notable of which being his interactions with Eva. She points out many interesting things to him that he hadn't noticed before, and kind of exposes all of these things that Jason has been keeping locked up inside of himself (like his stammer and the "hairy barbarians").      One of the biggest changes we notice in Jason is the fact that he stops using the word "gay" to describe things, and even sometimes uses words that he would have described as "gay" before (like "beautiful" when he'...
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