all of childhood is essentially preparation for adulthood. Do the two stories, `The Man in the Well` by Ira Sher and `Werewolves in Their Youth` by Michael Chabon seem to support, refute, or complicate that statement? Explain your position in detail. Ple

All of Childhood is Essentially Preparation for Adulthood

2006

It is said that all of childhood is essentially preparation for adulthood . Children , during the precious few years they spend without the responsibility , awareness and experience to be considered adults watch and mimic the world around them , for it is by mimicking that they learn to become adults themselves . Both Werewolves in Their Youth by Michael Chabon and The Man in the Well , by Ira Sher , promote the supposition that all of childhood is preparation for adulthood , by revealing characteristics and attitudes

in young children that show glimpses of the world and environment in which they were raised and by which they were shaped . Both stories , additionally , give insight as to what it is that separates adults from children , both by contrasting adult and child characters and by leading the reader to a directed realization of what characteristics of behavior define adulthood

In The Man in the Well , Sher begins by having the nine year old child , whose name is the only one among all of the children that we never learn , state that although he remembered that the children had made the decision not to help the man stuck in the well , he didn 't remember if they 'd given themselves a reason for not helping (Sher , 1 The act of making a decision without giving a reason is both very childlike and very adult-like . Children , without the ability to make critical decision and employ as rational thought as adults , often make decisions without reasons , functioning mainly on impulse . Will I swing on the swings or ride the slide ? Slide it is - but why ? But failing to give a reason for a decision can also be a very adult-like quality After all , hasn 't everyone heard their mother voice the statement I don 't need a reason , I 'm your mother ? Adults and especially parents will often make a decision without giving a reason to enforce that they are beyond needing to give a reason and should not be questioned by virtue of their status as adults . So while the children 's decision not to help the man in the well was not supported by a reason , and while that may have only been a sign of childhood impetuousness , it can also be a sign of imitating the adults that have provided the examples to follow in their lives

The next sign in The Man in the Well ' the childhood is essentially preparation for adulthood is in the children 's unwillingness to give their names to the man in the well , exhibited by the careful way in which they talk and the embarrassment felt when one child 's name is accidentally revealed (Sher , 3 ) This , like making decisions without giving reasons , can also be seen as both an adultlike and a childlike trait , bridging the behaviors of one generation to the next . Remaining nameless is a way to hide , and in a situation where the children are already a bit...