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Author
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Comment
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tallulah2005
Registered User
(9/21/05 9:27 am)
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Liminal Ages
What is the typical age of the protagonist in "coming of age" stories? I read one just recently that was about a boy turning from 12 to 13, but it seemed to me that 11 was a more significant age in fairy tales. Is that right or am I just thinking of "Harry Potter" and "The Dark is Rising" and forgetting everything else?
Thanks in advance...
elissa
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Writerpatrick
Registered User
(9/21/05 10:04 am)
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Re: Liminal Ages
"Coming of Age" stories typically involve teenagers, but it is possible to do a story with pre-teens or post-teen young adults. The "coming of age" concept is about going from childhood to adulthood.
Fairy tales tend to range in greatly in age, but they do tend towards they younger rather than the older. Snow White is taken into the forest when she's only seven. Though she does marry at the end of the story, so it's likely she's a teen by then.
If the story involves marriage it's often about teens. Hundreds of years ago it was common for a 16 year old girl to marry. I believe a woman older than 29 was considered an old maid. Most fairy tales don't give exact ages, but they do often refer to the youngest of three.
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DividedSelf
Registered User
(9/21/05 10:48 am)
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Re: Liminal Ages
Going by the stuff I've come across, I can't off hand think of a fairy story where the age of a male hero is given. Maybe there is, but usually it seems to be "time for him to go out make a living" or some such. In the Firebird, Ivan is "just a lad" though his two brothers are in some sense "of age".
But there are quite a few stories where we're given a female hero's age. 15 seems pretty common (e.g. Briar Rose), but I get the impression that in a lot of stories with female heros there is a significant passage of time (anything between about 2 and 100 years)... spent sleeping, or journeying with iron shoes or just hanging around... But anyway, this never seems anything like so common or marked in the case of male heros... (It's just an impression, or am I imagining this?)
I don't know why 7 in the case of Snow White. Bettelheim strongly implies this is an age where narcissism becomes a threat... (!!!???)
11's probably an important age in modern children's stories simply because of the transition to secondary school.
With respect to modern stories in general, I don't see any reason why a hero couldn't be any age. I just rewatched Three Colours White, which might in a way be seen as the coming of age story of a middle aged man... Or am I just stretching it now...?
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kristiw
Unregistered User
(9/21/05 11:11 pm)
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coming of age
I wonder if the fact that a hero's age is less significant than a heroine's has to do with the fact that a hero "comes of age" whenever he accomplishes his task, whereas a heroine's task is to get married, which is only possible for a few years in her youth.
Of course it isn't always so gendered... in many societies adulthood was/is associated with marriage, so single people, male or female, were considered permanent adolescents. Rather sad in situations like Ireland, where the dowry system usually made it impossible for more than one sibling to marry.
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DividedSelf
Registered User
(9/22/05 1:17 pm)
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Re: Another thought...
Remembered the RC Church holds 7 to be the "age of reason", which (I seem to recall) means before that they aren't morally responsible and after that, magically, they are. This is the age of first Communion and Confession. And the routine age for Confirmation is 10 or 11, after which you're supposed to be an adult "in the eyes of God"...
Quote:
I wonder if the fact that a hero's age is less significant than a heroine's has to do with the fact that a hero "comes of age" whenever he accomplishes his task, whereas a heroine's task is to get married
In modern stories, there are loads of childlike adult male heros who in some sense "mature"... thinking of Chaplin type things etc... There are counterparts for women too, I think, but I don't know how you'd compare them...
(Bit scared of getting political now, so I'll stop before it goes horribly wrong!)
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tallulah2005
Registered User
(9/23/05 3:02 pm)
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Re: Another thought...
Thanks for the advice. I don't know why I feel like 11 should be more important - maybe it has to do with turning 12 (a multiple of 3)? I have no idea...
Everything you've said about girls makes a lot of sense (preparation for marriage, etc). Thanks!
elissa
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