The Coming Of Age In George Herbert Mead's Coming-Of-Age

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Merriam-Webster dictionary defines coming-of-age as “the time when a person becomes an adult” (“Coming-of-age”). This definition seems simple. The answer would be the age at which our state recognizes a child as a young adult. In the state of West Virginia, this would be at age 18 (“Terminating”). However, Merriam-Webster provides a definition that reads “the attainment of prominence, respectability, recognition, or maturity” (“Coming-of-age”). This complicates the answer because it involves factors that influence the point in which such attainment is reached. Factor such as economic status, race, religion, geographic location, sexuality, and family/guardians. Although all of these factors are related to one another and cannot be separated, …show more content…

After years of study, sociologists have come up with a term, socialization, to describe the process one goes through in their coming-of-age. Socialization is “the process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as member that society” (Conley pg. 112). One famous sociologist, George Herbert Mead, explored the steps of socialization. Mead theorizes that every child is born and first discovers themselves, their needs, and wants. The whole world revolves around them. It is only through imitation that children learn that other people live in the world. Then, the child is able to develop further from just acknowledgement of others to understanding and empathy for others’ thoughts and feelings (Conley pg. 115-116). The key component to the whole process of discovering others is others to imitate. Thus, children learn to see the world through the view of the people they imitate which more than likely will be their parents or guardians in the first stages of their …show more content…

In Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer encapsulates the irony of it all. “[My father’s] struggle to mold me in his image had been successful after all. The old walrus in fact managed to instill in me a great and burning ambition; it had simply found expression in an unintended pursuit”

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