final project for coming of age

In the book "The Golden Compass" the protagonist Lyra goes through some stuff that makes her become mature. Apparently finding out who your parents are can make you mature within a short time span. But of course it is just a book, fictional to be specific. Anyway her struggles build her character throughout the book. This would be the reason why "The Golden Compass" is a coming of age book. The changes that she goes through take her from being a young clueless girl to a mature woman who learns how to deal with harsh and drastic situations. She also learns and decides who she wants to be in her future endeavors.

In the beginning of the book, Lyra was finding out/learning about her daemon. Her daemon was still able to shape shift due to the fact that she hasn't gone through puberty yet. Her daemon of course doesn't settle until another book when she is all grown up.

What struggles/ conflicts has she overcome? How? What did she learn from these experiences?

As I’ve previously stated, Lyra goes through the struggle of finding out that her uncle is her dad. She also finds out that her mother is the person in charge of the gobbler organization (bad guy). So she runs away, and then a bunch of tartar slavers attack her and then a group of gyptians save her during her peril. So basically at first she overreacts to the problem by running away. So eventually she gets an army of gyptians hires an armored bear and then kills all of the gobblers purely out of anger because they kidnapped her friend Roger. In the end, she learned to be a little more cautious before doing anything.

How has the protagonist changed? What valuable lessons or realizations has she gained? The protagonist went from being a troubled curious young little girl. Later on in the book she flourished into the grown woman that she strived to be. She realized that planning ahead of actions always helps, but it took Robert being kidnapped for her to have this realization.  So basically throughout the story she learned that it always helps to plan her actions and that it's not always necessary to overreact

2nd draft of "Romeo and Juliet" final assignment

When comparing marriage between 16th century Italy and present day united states, standards have changed drastically, leaving many differences as a result. An example of how standards changed is, how age standards have changed, from people getting married at teen ages being acceptable, to people having to be at least eight-teen years old to marry.


Based on “Romeo and Juliet”, love and passion can easily develop very quickly at teen ages. During the renaissance marriage was mostly intended for gaining a social status. In present day United States, marriage can have a few more personal reasons than just gaining social status. But of the multiple reasons that people get married in present day United States, is a serious passionate love between two people. The main reason of marriage during the renaissance was to gain social status, but in "Romeo and Juliet" Romeo and Juliet had the urge to marry each other because of the love they had for each other. But keeping in mind that Juliet was intended to marry Paris, it is a reminder that it is still in the age of the renaissance because of the arrangement.


During the renaissance and in modern day United States, marriage has its similar standards as well as different standards. One example of a similar standard would be that in both time periods, people get married because of their love for each other. Although during 16th century Italy, love might have been created by arranged marriage. An example of this would be Romeo thinking that he was in love with Rosaline, then he met Juliet. Now adays marriage is mostly contributed to by, passion and love, which is created when meeting people (dating).


Although both time periods have a few similar standards, there are a handful of differences as well. One example of marriages then and now would be the reasons for marriage. Back then marriage could have been because of love but as stated before that love could have been forced because of the arranged marriage. Now, marriage happens when two people passionately love each other. So basically marriages in both time periods are contributed to by love and passion, to some extent.


In conclusion marriages of all time periods are contributed by love and passion. Sometimes it develops because of different reasons. Though some reasons less romantic than others. The less romantic reasons being arranged marriage. The romantic reasons would be for those who actually seek a life with a partner.