Cold_Sassy_Tree

Honors English 3rd Period October 19, 2011 Coming of Age Essay Coming of Age Essay: Cold Sassy Tree Olive Ann Burns wrote Cold Sassy Tree. Throughout the story, Will Tweedy starts to grow, change, and come of age. After his grandma, Mattie Lou, dies, his grandpa marries a younger woman. This is not accepted at the time, as people consider a widow and family should mourn for at least a year. Throughout the course of the year, he begins to mature and learn about life, love, and death. Will grows to become more educated as many prior experiences. He also changes when he becomes greedy of the attention of his Grandpa. As well as, coming of age by being deprived of his innocence. Will Tweedy begins to grow and mature throughout the book’s duration. One way he really grows, is by becoming more reliable. At the beginning, Will didn’t do what he was told. For example, he goes out to the train trestle, when he is in mourning. Therefore, you couldn’t rely on him on making the right judgment. Also, he tells Lightfoot he is going to pick blackberries with her but forgets. However, towards the end, Miss Love really confides in Will with sensitive information. In addition, Grandpa and Miss Love tell Will first, that they want to sell automobiles at the store. This shows that he can reliable and trusting to them. The change in Will happens in chapter 45, when grandpa and Hosie talk about terms of him starting to work at the store. Soon, he becomes very jealous of Hosie. In addition, Will is scared of loosing Grandpa’s respect as Hosie can do twice the work as Will and ten times the work of Uncle Camp. Also, Grandpa’s affection is really showing for Miss Love, and spends time with her at home. This shows that will is becoming very greedy about sharing his Grandpa’s personal affection with Hosie Roach and Miss Love. Furthermore, Will also becomes uneasy whenever Lightfoot tells Will about he getting married to Hosie. Consequently, this shows more jealousy toward Hosie Roach. At the beginning of the book, Will shows very little intimate interests. On the other hand, Will starts loosing his innocence starting in chapter 18 when he describes Miss Love’s bosoms out of her low cut, pink dress. Later, he sees Miss Love and Mr. McAllister kiss “… a string of kisses a mile long…” This later sparked curiosity of intimate interests of Will. Also, making rumors about Aunt Loma’s bosoms to Pink and Smiley. Following this, he kisses Lightfoot in the cemetery. All of these are the result of Will’s innocence deteriorating throughout the book. The three examples of Will growing and changing, show that this is a coming of age novel. He grows to be a more trustful and reliable person. In addition to that, he changes into a typical teenage boy. Through out the book he gains trust and education from his family. Will Tweedy learned many things through experiences of death and love. In the end, he learns from his mistakes, gains experiences, and helps others. Will Tweedy grows up tremendously throughout the coming of age novel.