Vivia's Coming of Age Blog

     Throughout the book, it seems as though Benji struggles to find his identity in various ways. From fitting into his race, fitting within his friend group, and finding who he is a part of his brother, Benji experiences various factors that challenge and attempt to shape his identity and throughout the book, we see him struggling to determine his true identity.      One instance where we see him struggle with his identity is when rather than trying to create and find his own unique identity, Benji aims to copy others instead. He mentions how he took notes while observing others so that he can adopt them as his own. For instance, he would make sure to keep up with the terms and language that his friends used in order to fit in. It seems as though Benji settles for imitating others, most likely because it will ensure that he will fit in, rather than trying to work through his own identity.      Another instance where we see Benji struggling to figure out his identity is his relationsh

     Throughout the book, Jason struggles with numerous pressures in his life including social opinion, and his greatest insecurity, his stutter. However, in the second half of the book, Jason faces all of those pressures until they eventually have little if any effect on his life. How and why did that happen? In order to let go of those pressures, Jason had to face those pressures, and in doing so he was able to start living the life he wanted, starting by gaining his confidence back and by spending time with the people he actually valued.      When Jason was forced to face all of his fears: exposing his stutter, being made fun of by his peers, and ultimately ending up at the bottom of the social hierarchy, he had nothing else to lose. However, by having nothing else to lose, he had nothing else that could stop him from doing or being whatever he wanted. He stopped caring about what others thought about him and become more confident because he no longer cared about what happened to hi