Growing up in The Outsiders and That Was Then by S. E. Hinton and Lord of the Flies by Golding :: essays research papers

Growing up is a current issue nowadays with children and teenagers seeming to enter the adult world at an earlier age thus having to take on the responsibilities of adults. When does a child become an adult? For many the right answer is that it has nothing to do with age, it is determined by the behavior. In this essay I will not go into the issue of when a child turns into an adult but rather think about how the issue is treated in ?The Outsiders?, and ?That Was Then, This Is Now? by S.E Hinton, and ?Lord of the Flies? by William Golding. From the point of view of growing up, the first two novels are quite similar. In ?The Outsiders? growing up is an issue throughout the novel and it is largely focused on the stages of teenage years to surviving adulthood. While in the novel ?That Was Then, This Is Now? the boys encounter what they are capable of and what they can do to change their future. As I read ?The Outsiders? the behavior of the boys have are not shown in a regular teen aged boy. For example the group of boys enjoy fighting and causing violence because that is how they were raised. The author let the readers have an idea of what it is like to have no discipline and authority. Hinton came up with ideas that nearly got the readers to grasp what was going on in her novel, she showed the readers that a life without authority only results with bad behavior. Ponyboy a character from ?The Outsiders? and his older brothers including the rest of the boys all did what they wanted. Because the boys grew up without any parents or idols they didn?t feel that they needed to listen or follow any rules. In the result of their behavior and choices they have to deal with bad consequences that they have to grow up with. In the novel ?That Was Then, This Is Now? I noticed that the characters almost have the same traits of the teens in the book ?The Outsiders? because the two main character Mark, and Bryon grew up without any parents. These boys also enjoyed fighting and partying all the time because they never had