Stephen King is the author who has bright ideas that can make any readers entertaining. Shawshank Redemption was a great story to read, but the new story I recently started, 'The Body', really got my attention. Mainly because it was a Coming-of-Age story, or in German, Bildungsroman. From the definition of Merriam-Webster Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bildungsroman), the term Bildungsroman means a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character. The origin of Bildungsroman comes from German, from Bildung, meaning education and Roman, meaning novel. Quintessential example of Bildungsroman are: ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ by J. D. Salinger, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee’, and of course, ‘The Body’ by Stephen King.
Coming-of-Age story conveys its theme of 'Boyhood to Manhood' usually by changing the attitude or the way of speaking at the end of the story. So far, I haven't reached the point where such dramatic changes in the protagonists' psychological development happen. Yet, I could take a glimpse of the facts that are set for the author to face an eventual change. The main part of the story starts when Vern says, "You guys wanna go see a dead body?". The innocent idea that finding the body will make all four of them heros is a thing that belong to kids, especially when they are kids who are about to enter junior high. This idea would most likely 'fall from innocence' as the subtitle of 'The Body' mentions. Because learning to respect a dead human being is one of the things that teenagers should go through during adolescence. Because adolescence is the time of setting one's view of values, every single experience the one go through could work as a vital part in forming one's thoughts.
In this story, four main characters appear each from different backgrounds. Their roles in the group differs from another and each of them are expected to undergo different kinds of Coming-of-Age. The most expected coming-of-age is Gordon's coming of age. This is because I was deeply resonated by his story of a dead brother. Since he was considered an "Invisible Man' by his parents after his brother died, I believe that his behavior would be different from the other guys when they come to see the dead body. Overall, the first thirty pages of 'The Body' made me feel desirable of reading the book. I look forward how the story is going to show the theme of Coming-of-Age.
I learned that word Bildungsroman from Jingyeong in one of her reflections, and had to google it to find its meaning. I wonder where you learned it? Good comparison and classification. Harry Potter would be another one I suppose.
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