Comparing Maturation in Sons and Lovers, Out Of The Shelter and The Rac

Comparing Maturation in Sons and Lovers by D.H Lawrence, Out Of The Shelter by David Lodge and The Rachel Papers  by Martin Amis  Ã‚   Each of these three novels Sons and Lovers by D.H Lawrence, Out Of The Shelter by David Lodge and The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis, examine the transition between childhood and adulthood of the three main characters in each of the texts. Each author represents this transition by showing how all the characters deal with significant stages or events in their lives. The problems which they encounter lead to the maturation of each character which finally leads to the process of growing up taking place. Although each book is set in a different era, where social conventions are very different, many of the problems which each of the characters face remain the same. Sons and Lovers by D.H.Lawrence is set in a working class, coal-mining community in pre-war England. It is against this setting that Paul Morel grows up. For Paul, the process of growing up means how his relationships with various groups of people and individuals develop and how he himself sees these relationships. The mostsignif icant relationships Paul has are those with his parents, the opposite sex and the outside world. Paul's childhood is similar to other children in that area of Nottingham in the 1930s. His father spends most evenings drinking, squandering most of the family's income. Paul resents his father for making his mother suffer because of this and never questions the fact that it is his mother who drives Mr Morel to drink. Paul is the second of four children and has an unusually close relationship with his mother which intensifies after the death of his elder brother, William. This relationship that Paul has with his mother pre... ...urney which is made by the main character takes place over a relatavely short period of time. The way in which adolescents' rites of passage are represented in all three of my novels conforms to the idea that "The subject is the development of the protagonist's mind and character, as he passes from childhood through varied experiences - and usually through spiritual crisis - into maturity and the recognition of his identity and role in the world." Works Cited Amis, Martin. The Rachel Papers. New York: Vintage International, 1992. Lawrence, D.H. Sons and Lovers. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1996 Lodge, David. Out of the Shelter. New York: 1985. Powell, Neil. "What Life Is: The Novels of Martin Amis." PN Review, June 1981: 42-45. Spilka, Mark. The Love Ethic of D.H. Lawrence. (1955): 244. Rpt. In TCLC. Ed. Dennis Poupard. Vol. 16. Detroit: Gale, 1985.