The term “coming-of-age” describes a type of story that focuses on the development of the main character or group of characters. These characters are usually young, yet on the cusp of adulthood. The coming-of-age story details an emotional journey a character must take in order to grow and mature towards adult hood.
Rushmore, a screenplay by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson, tells the story of Max Fischer’s coming-of-age. Using Rushmore as an example, a screenwriter can see that the basic process of telling a coming-of-age story is this: establish an emotionally immature mindset, tear it down, then build a new, more mature mindset.
The story begins with Max as a naïve, idealistic young man. He loves his school, Rushmore, but is a poor student (Anderson 5). His whole sense of identity is wrapped up in his attending Rushmore and he has no goals beyond that, which he expresses with the line, “I think you gotta find something you love to do, then do it for the rest of your life. For me, it’s going to Rushmore” (13). Max’s fixation on his school illustrates his childlike mentality. He has no realistic, mature outlook on life.
Max is a character ripe for a “coming-of-age.” It is important for the story to begin this way because it lays the groundwork for the journey to come. Max is an immediately likeable character, but it is clear to the audience that he has a rude awakening coming when he enters the world of adults and that he is going to have to change if he is to survive the transition into adulthood.
After establishing the main character, the coming-of-age story must present him with a goal. The goal must be something that challenges his current mindset and drives him to change.
In Rushmore, the goal comes in the form of first grade teacher Miss Cross. Max quickly becomes infatuated with Miss Cross and, despite their age difference, pursues her romantically in a grandiose, over-the-top manner. This leads to his expulsion from Rushmore after he begins construction on an aquarium on Rushmore grounds without permission of school officials (44).
This chain of events shows that Max has been stirred into action and that his mindset is changing, but he still has a long way to go. He pursues a goal but he does not have the mental or emotional tools, the maturity, to obtain this goal. Max interacts with adults and mimics adult behavior but he is still a child.
Max needs to be shaken up, to understand the reality of his situation. In other words, he needs a crisis. This crisis comes when Max finds out Miss Cross is having an affair with his friend and mentor Herman Blume (58). The crisis challenges everything Max has come to believe about himself and his world, which is that Miss Cross loves him and that Blume is his friend.
That is exactly what a crisis is supposed to do in a coming-of-age story. The character must be made to see the reality of his situation; his false perceptions must crumble and his heroes must fall. This is the sink-or-swim moment for the coming-of-age protagonist. This is where he must make a crucial decision. He can either sink back into his former child-like state or swim forward, towards emotional maturity.
Inevitably, Max chooses to swim, or else this would not be a coming-of-age story. He reconciles to remain friends with Miss Cross and Herman Blume and encourages their relationship. He embraces his new school and even finds a girlfriend his own age (95-103). Max has grown from a scatter-brained, idealistic child into a well-rounded young man.
Ironically, Max’s first step towards adulthood is realizing he is not an adult. This is important to note because it illustrates that “coming-of-age” does not mean the character starts out as a child and ends up as an adult. It simply means that the character learns something about being an adult and grows more mature.
~Jon Lucas Murphy
What are some of your favorite "coming-of-age" stories? Do they follow the model of Rushmore? If not, how do they differ?
A coming of age movie I really identified with was Platoon. The protagonist in that film starts naieve, but his experience in Vietnam and with other American servicemen puts him past the simple maturity in dissilusionment. I got a sense that his ultimate development comes with an understanding of the individual's own capacity for good and evil. Seen in that way, it is reflective of the duality that Stone establishes throughout the film, the foils of Barnes and Elias being two sides of the same, American coin.
ReplyDelete