There’s a reason there has been over hundreds of coming of age novels published, because they contain everything a reader wants to read heartache, suffering, and loss. Everyone has or will have a coming of age, it is a monumental moment of life that one never forgets. In The Death of the Heart, Bowen argues the disruptive and hard experience to come of age is through depicting the harshness and cruelty of the world and how it has the power to transform someone from innocent to knowledgeable: to come of age. Bowen exemplifies a coming of age through contrasting settings of one that helps flourish someone and one that shows the realities of the real world, effects of positive and negative characters in one’s development, and the knowledge conflict
…show more content…
Portia experiences the opposite type of home when she lived at Waikki, the seaside home, with Anna’s old governess. At this home she see’s how miserable Windsor Terrace is and begins to understand what a real home should feel like. Xioatian explains the emotions Portia’s begins to feel after living in Waikki and discovering the cold place Windsor Terrace is, “After the cautious quiet and isolation of Windsor Terrace, Portia is dazzled by Waikiki’s life-giving force that releases rather than represses human feeling.” (Xiotian). Waikki is a place for Portia where once in her life she feels accepted and able to feel happiness. In the novel a certain quote depicts Portia’s pure happiness, “Sunlight of a pure seaside quality flooded the breakfast table, and Portia, looking out through the sun porch, thought how pleasant this was” (Bowen 186). Portia escaped the dark London home and the dark, rude people inside it, and begins to be aware of what a true home should feel like. Mrs. Heccomb, the mom of the home, shows expressions of happiness and gratefulness for Portia’s stay, instead of bitterness and displeaement Anna show her. Mrs. Heccomb encourages her to be a teenager, to spend time with friends and laugh, instead of encouragement to hide her identity and be someone else, as Anna does. Portia has never had a proper, accepting home, moreover when she lives with Thomas and Anna she is unaware of how repugnant it. She starts the novel being blind to the negativity from the house, but begins to realize what a house should feel like and how Windsor Terrace is the complete
Portia experiences the opposite type of home when she lived at Waikki, the seaside home, with Anna’s old governess. At this home she see’s how miserable Windsor Terrace is and begins to understand what a real home should feel like. Xioatian explains the emotions Portia’s begins to feel after living in Waikki and discovering the cold place Windsor Terrace is, “After the cautious quiet and isolation of Windsor Terrace, Portia is dazzled by Waikiki’s life-giving force that releases rather than represses human feeling.” (Xiotian). Waikki is a place for Portia where once in her life she feels accepted and able to feel happiness. In the novel a certain quote depicts Portia’s pure happiness, “Sunlight of a pure seaside quality flooded the breakfast table, and Portia, looking out through the sun porch, thought how pleasant this was” (Bowen 186). Portia escaped the dark London home and the dark, rude people inside it, and begins to be aware of what a true home should feel like. Mrs. Heccomb, the mom of the home, shows expressions of happiness and gratefulness for Portia’s stay, instead of bitterness and displeaement Anna show her. Mrs. Heccomb encourages her to be a teenager, to spend time with friends and laugh, instead of encouragement to hide her identity and be someone else, as Anna does. Portia has never had a proper, accepting home, moreover when she lives with Thomas and Anna she is unaware of how repugnant it. She starts the novel being blind to the negativity from the house, but begins to realize what a house should feel like and how Windsor Terrace is the complete