The End of Adolescence

In the beginning of Black Swan Green , Julia is portrayed as the "big sister who doesn't like her little brother" trope. The "girl upstairs" who likes makeup and boys, as long as they aren't grubby younger brothers. She refers to Jason as "Thing" and "it" and prefers to spend time with her friend Kate rather than hang out with Jason. In turn, Jason seems to reciprocate those feelings, though it is revealed he actually admires his older sister, taking note of the ease of which she debates or responds to adults. Similarly, Julia takes note of her brother's secret poetry prowess, even defending him in front of their extended family. Despite their admirations for each other, though, neither sibling appears to make an effort to bond with the other; that is, until their parents begin fighting. Though Helena and Michael's fights break the family, Julia and Jason grow closer together because of them. The fights are events that the siblin

 Alison and her brothers, John and Christian, grew up playing in the Fun Home, their family's funeral home. They spent time around coffins, open graves, and mourning families, among other things. Alison even recalls spending nights at the Fun Home with her grandmother. As such, Alison and her brothers developed an irregular reaction towards death, and especially towards mourning with death. Having spent hours upon hours with dead people, death comes differently. Thus when their father dies, they don't respond to hearing of his death as most would. They laugh. Alison's laugh shocks many of the characters in the book, and why shouldn't it? Typically you don't expect someone to bend over with laughter while telling you their dad was hit by a truck. And yet, that's how Alison reacts. She has a similar reaction when she meets her brother Christian shortly after her dad's death. They just stare at each other and smile oddly. It's a noticeably off-setting inter

Buddy Willard plays a key role in Esther's story as a love interest and rival - but does he play a role in her mental health journey? I think that in the beginning, Buddy is partially responsible for Esther's declining mental health. She used to be interested in him, but then realized she didn't actually care for him much. I don't think that that in itself is responsible for Esther's mental status, but I do think it might have affected it. Esther always assumed she would get together with Buddy, lose her virginity to Buddy, start a family with Buddy, and now she's coming to the realization that Buddy isn't the guy for her. Hearing that Buddy had already lost his virginity also hurt Esther and spurred a feeling of competition in her to lose hers as well. That competitive feeling wasn't very healthy for Esther, as it made her worry needlessly about finding the perfect man, discovering someone to lose her virginity to, meeting the person to start a family w

 If Holden has such a "unique" mindset then why is he so relatable? While reading The Catcher in the Rye , I felt as though I really understood Holden Caulfield. It was odd, Holden would talk about his experiences and how he was the only one to view them the way he did, and I would sympathize with him. I particularly remember one instance, near the beginning of the book, where Holden was messing around with Stradlater in the bathroom, and everyone in class was calling Holden a hypocrite because he'd just criticized Ackley for messing around earlier. While it was a little hypocritical of Holden, I understood where he was coming from. Having someone joke around when you're just trying to have some alone time can be so annoying. But when Stradlater and Holden went to the can, it was a different scenario, a bit more acceptable for Holden to be joking around, even though Stradlater didn't seem to appreciate it. I do understand that part of Holden's hypocrisy comes

 Welcome to the End of Adolescence, a blog created by Nathaniel Wiesbrook. The author would like to note that he plans on keeping this blog light-hearted, but depending on the material discussed in the readings done for class that light-heartedness is subject to change. Thank you for your time and please enjoy reading the End of Adolescence.