Everything After This Point is The Coming of Age Novel

 Posts before this are "American History as Fiction" everything after this post is for "The Coming of Age Novel".

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The Ultimate Performative Male; Lee Oswald as Depicted in “Libra”

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The term “Performative male”– a man who performs for women as women’s ideal man to get gratification and often sex– is a term utterly befitting of Lee Oswald’s character in “Libra”. In his case however, instead of performing for physical gratification, he performs for emotional gratification and a sense of superiority that keeps his sly smirk on his face. His audience in his performance is everyone, but he feels superior to those who don’t understand him, and recognized by those who do; other communists.  From the start of the novel, we see a severely dyslexic Lee attempt to read the massive “Das Kapital” and other books to show off his elite communism. This initial performance is met by a non-understanding audience. Nobody gets him. He’s not like other Americans. This lack of understanding/pushback does however bring him a sense of superiority because he is unique in his community. Later, we see him join the marines, with the manual memorized, being a know-it-all. But gratificatio...
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Freedom, Purity Culture, and Sex in "The Bell Jar"

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Kindred could not have ended any other way; the power of being unpredictable and inevitable.

Kindred is a novel in which you spend a lot of time wanting to read ahead– finish just another page– to get over the cliffhanger. Nonetheless, there’s an inevitable quality to the novel’s conclusion, and really everything that happens. Of course Rufus didn’t send Dana’s letters to Kevin. Of course Dana had to use her knife. Of course Rufus had to die. Of course Hagar was born. Chekhov’s gun has to go off once introduced; and it always does. The inevitability of this novel’s events are due to foreshadowing. However, thanks to distractions, the readers are kept guessing on what’s to come, and the novel stays unpredictable.  The book ended with a few main conclusions: Dana survived, Hagar was born (of rape no less), Dana had to use her knife, Rufus wanted Dana, and the others were not free. All of these conclusions felt inevitable. For Dana’s knife, it’s almost like Chekhov’s gun in the sense that once it was presented, as well as the dangers that told her she could face it (42-43...
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