Is The Graveyard Book A Coming of Age Novel?
Is the Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman a coming of age story? To start, a coming of age novel typically includes; a life from start to adulthood, a characters view point changing as he learns and develops in the environment around him, and a character gaining new responsibilities.
One piece of evidence that supports the argument of the Graveyard Book is a coming of age novel is the fact that in the setting of the beginning of the book the main character named "Nobody; Bod for short" was three years old and crawled out of his crib while his family was being murdered. He left the house crawling, up the street to The graveyard where he would later learn and grow make friends and made his home as he grew up.
Another point being made is the Graveyard Book is actually a coming of age novel because the main plot in the novel has main character growing older and accomplishing life benchmarks as he goes to ghost school in the grave yard then a human school. Examples from the story of him coming of age is Bod left the graveyard twice to start a small adventure alone, and he also took down the main antagonist “The Man Jack” and the rest of the Jacks found in the novel
Although the Counter argument has also been made that the Graveyard Book can’t be a coming of age novel because the main character Bod hasn’t come of any age by the end of the novel he is still a child in the mind most people. He hasn’t grown up and still has a lot to learn from everything he hasn’t learned or encountered on the road of life yet being that he is only 14 years old. This is a valid argument but the fact that he accomplished many things in His time spent in the graveyard can’t be ignored.
In conclusion of the main argument, the amount of evidence proving the graveyard book is a coming of age novel far out numbers the evidence trying to prove otherwise. In other words, the reader can conclude that the graveyard book must be a coming of age...