Defining Adolescence

Julien Gruber

Through this semester, we have read texts that depict the passage of girls growing up and becoming young women in a variety of contexts and time periods. We have seen Charlotte Temple in the 18th century, the girls of the Lowell Offering in the early 19th century, Jane McKeene in the post civil war era of Dread Nation, Esperanza from The House on Mango Street in the mid 20th century, and Cameron Post in the 90’s. However, through the centuries and all across different areas of the United States and England, there are a lot of similar experiences, emotions, and themes in the characters from these stories that helps build a common representation of adolescence. One thing that I’ve felt is particularly revealing is the importance and emphasis of independence to the young women in all of the stories, even while their autonomy is often restricted. Charlotte leaves her parents and school to elope, the girls of the Lowell Offering go off to live without their parents and work for a salary, Jane leaves Rose Hill to attend Miss Preston’ school, Esperanza’s greatest desire is to buy a house of her own, and Cameron first leaves her aunt and grandmother behind when she goes to Gods Promise but then escapes from there too. All of these girls, perhaps minus Esperanza, leave their home and by doing so, transform their levels of independence. 

While going off on your own and leaving your parents behind is clearly going to be something that affects a person’s level of independence, I think that it is a fair question to ask whether it is possible to transition from adolescence into an adult without having your parents or a schoolteacher assigned as a caretaker there to watch over you. There has long been a portrayal in our society that a girl becomes a woman via sex or marriage but I believe that this concept is outdated and the books that we have read would present an argument otherwise. The idea that sex or marriage is the path to adulthood comes with the narrative that innocence is what defines a child and a loss of innocence makes an adult but if we changed this narrative to freedom and autonomy being what makes an adult instead, it would seem to be a logical argument that it is not really possible to become an adult without going off on your own and having to fend for yourself. 

This idea can be backed up by closely examining the main characters from the texts. Of all the girls and young women in the stories that we have read, I would argue that the one that seems most like a child by the end of the story is Charlotte, despite the fact that she is the only one of the girls who is married and even has a child before her untimely death. In addition to this, even though Charlotte does leave her parents and her school behind, she never really has true independence or autonomy and instead relies on others to take care of her, even having her father coming at the end of the story and calling her “my long lost child”(102). Even after Charlotte had physically left her parents, she still regretted leaving them and she was unable to actually fend for herself out in the real world, having money given to her and she would almost never leave her small apartment. In contrast, Jane is probably the most mature and adult of all the young women which comes from having needed to fend for herself from even an early age. In a world where she is constantly in danger from both shamblers and other people due to the color of her skin, she is someone who has been forced to take action and hold her own. Even in a world where her autonomy should’ve theoretically been restricted due to her class, race , and age, Jane forged her own independence by sneaking out of Miss Preston’s at night, learning to read, and even killed the Major in order to protect herself and her mother. 

In essence, I think that all the novels challenge what it means to be an adolescent, what it means to be an adult, but also how both of these definitions are looked at differently by society over time and how they differ for boys and girls, and for people of different ethnicities. We still have not had our first female president in the United States and only in the last several years did we get our first female vice president being Kamala Harris and our first president of color in Barack Obama. Women and men are afforded very different circumstances and expectations socially, in the workplace, as parents, and in nearly every aspect of life in our society which is supposed to be one of the most progressive societies in the world. The idea that women are supposed to be innocent, overly emotional, motherly, and passive is still commonplace and women who fight this narrative such as Cameron or Jane are punished for doing so. 

I think it is also important to note that there is a lot of overlap between traditional expectations for women and traditional expectations for children. In addition, the “women and children” is a phrase often heard in history and they are actually referred to in unison, almost as a single entity. In order to change the narrative and the gender norms that continue to plague our society, there needs to be a clear distinction between these terms and the portrayal that women are supposed to be innocent and need to be protected, as a child would, must be done away with. I don’t know exactly how to make this separation happen but in part, in order to change the societal perspective on what it means to be a child or a woman, there also needs to be a change in what it means to be a man, and there needs to be less distinction between assigned genders. If men continue to be allowed to be the less involved parent, do less of the work around the house, and are given all the positions of power, the distinction of roles will continue to exist. There cannot be a gender binary if there is to be true equality and until we can properly define a joint definition of what it means to be an adult, we cannot properly define adolescence and what it means to transition into becoming an adult.