A boy's coming of age

For the duration of existence human beings suffer the physical and mental stages of growing up. During these stages humans circumstantiate through their experiences to who they actually are in addition to what they are worth. Treasure Island is an adventure tale, but also looked at as a story of one boy’s coming of age. Life is a learning process, we learn when we grow. On the outset of the voyage, Jim was a timid adolescent, but by the closing stages, he had matured incredibly.
Jim Hawkins metamorphosis from a reticent thirteen year old boy to a ripe and sophisticated young adult begun with the presence of Billy Bones. When they might for the first time in the Admiral Benbow he left a memorable impact on Jim. “I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came ploddy to the Inn door, his sea chest following behind him in a hand-baron, a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his pigtail falling over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat; his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails; and the sabre cut across one cheek. I remember him looking ‘round the cove and whistling to himself as he did so often afterwards” (1). Jim and Billy established a devoted friendship. Jim was an only a young child at the time and he redeems intelligence throughout his journey in Treasure Island.
Jim searches for the right role model to follow. At first Jim looked at Dr. Livesey as an authority figure because of his position in the community, and his intellectual knowledge on the realistic world. Immediately when Jim found the map he turned to Dr. Livesey when he did not know what to do with it. Jim looks deep inside of people when he is around not only new faces, but with people he has already built a friendship with. Jim’s father wasn’t that tenacious father that most of us have. Jim matures not only through age, but who he encounters, and how well he accesses them as that male father figure. Jim is still in search for that level of maturity. Neither Dr. Livesey, nor squire Trelawney can inspire Jim as to who he chooses as that mentor in his life.
Jim’s explorations with the pirates changed sped him along his way down the road to adulthood even faster. He began to concentrate on the pirate’s actions, and the way they present themselves. Long John Silver and Jim grew close. Jim's made a first impression about Long John “His left leg was cut off close by the hip, and under the left shoulder he carried a crutch, which he managed with wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon it like a bird. He was very tall and strong, with a face as big as a ham-plain and pale, but intelligent and smiling” (76). From the first time Jim met silver instantly he begun seeking advice, and learning.
Maturity is not something that happens overnight. It’s a process that demands knowing right from wrong. Decision making plays an immense role on the level of maturity one can possess. Maturity is about choice. You can be given every skill that you need to survive and if you are mature enough you will use them. Jim out smarts Israel Hands by his sense of maturity while representing the difference between those who can take care of themselves and those who cannot. “I was no sooner certain of this than I began to feel sick, faint, and terrified. The hot blood was running over my back and chest. The dirk, where it had pinned my shoulder to the mast, seemed to burn like a hot iron; yet it was not so much these real sufferings that distressed me ... it was the horror I had upon my mind of falling from the cross-trees into that still green water beside the body of the coxswain. I clung with both hands till my nails ached, and I shut my eyes as if to cover up the peril. Gradually my mind came back again, my pulses quieted down to a more natural time, and I was once more in possession of myself “(170).

siddhartha goes around the world

Siddhartha has just arrived to a native land that he is completely unfamiliar with. Siddhartha and I were supposed to muster and coincide at Yosemite national park in California. Siddhartha is on his way from his country India and I had just departed from Bradley. Siddhartha told me he will meet me in the heart of the Yosemite Valley at three o’clock. I arrive at the park an hour prior to Siddhartha’s arrival and I begin to perambulate around the area taking in the natural beauty. I took an expeditious glimpse over the side of the cliff and while I was in complete awe I sat down and reminisced over the mind- blowing scenery. I was sitting dangling my feet over the edge zoning out and letting go of everything else, but what I was doing at that exact moment. I am listening to the sounds of the birds and the wind blowing creating a gentle melodious whistling noise; it is music to my ears. I see a small figure in the horizon that is moving in my direction I question whether it will be Siddhartha or not. Questions begin racing through my mind. Will I like him? What is he going to be like? What if we don’t get along with each other? This unknown figure is walking closer and about to approach me for the first time. We shake hands. He says to me, “It’s a pleasure to meet you finally. I am Siddhartha.” My response to him is the same. I thought to myself I think I will really be pleased by Siddhartha’s presence. We start concocting our plans and discussing what we are going to be doing while we are here at Yosemite national park. Siddhartha walks away from me and sits down on the rigid and rugged ground. I go over to talk to Siddhartha. He does not answer me with speech nor hand gestures. He is sitting with his legs crossed but not just crossed with one on top of each other as if he was made of rubber. He sits with immense posture while he is in deep meditation and this is an ideal environment to become one with you and the world around yourself.
The temperature is dropping rapidly. I am getting goose bumps on my neck and a chill down my spine. Siddhartha and I are freezing we have no blankets; no shelter just the clothes on our backs for warmth. I see the sun setting behind the tall snowy mountain tops. The sky is filled with shades of purple, blue, red, and orange I say to myself it’s a tangerine sky. The wind is blowing heavily against the tall green pine trees and carrying the prickly pine needles in my direction. I can feel these needles tickling Siddhartha and I while we are laying face up looking at the sky. I can notice Siddhartha rubbing off the pine needles and itching himself repeatedly. I now notice Siddhartha as he remained to lie inert on the forest floor. He’s complaining he cannot sleep as a result of the protruding roots from surrounding trees piercing and stabbing our backs. I say to myself this is going to be the most uncomfortable night sleep I will ever receive in my life.
As I wake up from a deep slumber and a horrible night sleep I roll over to glance at Siddhartha. I realize he is not there and I get up and pace around our camp where we slept. I do not see him anywhere. I start yelling “Siddhartha where are you” multiple times and I get no response. I know Siddhartha has a love for water and learns from it. So I have an idea to where he would be. I walk and pass by a massive oak tree. I see Siddhartha sitting near the stream behind the oak tree; he is telling me to listen to the sounds of the river. I stand in silence and all I can hear from the river is the sound of the water crashing and splashing from the nearby waterfall. Siddhartha says, “No listen to the river.” Siddhartha tells me, “Watch the continuous flow of water you will learn from this.” He wants to teach me what he had learned. He says,” this is the key to knowledge love this river, stay by it, learn from it.” I took Siddhartha’s advice and wisdom to heart and really thought about what he said to me. He opened my mind to whole different realm of thinking.
We had a great day and night at Yosemite national park. I learned so much from Siddhartha during this trip. Siddhartha had spread his wisdom and aptitude upon me. He shown me not to take my life or my belongings for granted. We decide after a long talk to leave Yosemite and descend to our next stop. We walk out of the forest with Siddhartha following right behind me. We meet with the taxi driver whose bringing us to the airport in Cheyenne, Wyoming.


After a period time of meditation and connecting with our inner being Siddhartha wanted to unleash and expose his other side. We were on our way to the airport in Cheyenne, Wyoming to catch our flight to Russia. The taxi cab driver dropped us off at the main entrance. We proceed to enter, and place our bags on an x- ray belt. We walk through security and waited for a couple seconds until our flight was called. Siddhartha says, “I am nervous to fly again Mike I hope everything will be ok”. I reply, “Everything will be fine I am sure nothing will happen”. Siddhartha sits down and crosses his legs right as we enter the jet way. While he is meditating I hear a low “um” sound coming from his mouth. Siddhartha finished without any disruption and continues to board the air craft. Our seats are right in the front near the pilot’s door, we are sitting first class. It is almost time for lift off. I hear the jet engines rumbling my seat beneath me. I feel a little tug, and then notice we are being pulled by a little truck and are going in reverse. I can feel Siddhartha’s heart beating out of his chest. The look on his face tells me he is apprehensive about flying this far. I know that he is indomitable and can be brave enough to make it through. The engines felt like they just had been turned up even higher. We are ready for lift off. Our plane is parked in line and we are waiting our turn to speed down the runway. The plane in front of us has just cleared, and we are minutes away from being air borne. I hear these loud after burners come on, and see the flaps on the wings lift up and were off. The wheels are still on the ground, and we approach the end of the runway. Siddhartha and I were so frightened that we wouldn’t get into the air. We are into the great blue yonder, and on our way to explore a brand new country. I notice Siddhartha’s eye lids shut. Soon after he fell asleep I did the same. I only woke up to go to the restroom, and then back to my seat. I hear an announcement on the intercom that we will be arriving in Moscow, Russia in ten minutes and get ready for landing. The twenty four hour flight has finally come to an end. I nudge Siddhartha’s shoulder a little, and he says, “Mike are we there yet”? I say, “Not quite yet buddy only about ten more minutes until Moscow. I hear the turbines on the airplanes wings starting to slow down. The stewardess on the airlines emptied the passengers with organization and uniform. As we are walking out of the airport a bus is parked in the main entrance, and is waiting for our presence. The bus driver takes us to our hotel which is in the center of Moscow. Siddhartha and I reach our hotel and give our bags to the kind, young bell boy. Siddhartha throws his bags on his bed and I do the same. It’s just about nightfall and Siddhartha says, “Mike I want to explore this city and go out tonight”. I agree with him and immediately we leave and lock the door. We end up searching the foreign Russia roads for some sort of night entertainment. Siddhartha points out a random door that he thinks leads to a subway station. I checked the door to see if it is unlocked or not, it was locked. As we kept walking past the door I said, “Siddhartha do you feel those vibrations underneath your feet”. Siddhartha replied, “Yes it seems like the bass from the incredibly loud music. As we continued past the strange door I heard a whistle, and thought to myself this is not going to be good something bad is definitely going to happen to us. The whistle caught Siddhartha’s and my attention, and we both look over our shoulders. I glanced back and I notice three Russian mobsters standing right in front of the door. They were guarding that door with their life. We decide to walk over to them and they speak upon themselves, but I quickly realize they are not fluent with the English language. They ask us some questions and invite us to this “rave” the mobsters told us about. But before we are allowed to enter they made us swear to keep our mouths shut. They did this by placing the barrel of 9mm glock to Siddhartha’s forehead. I say to myself I can even feel this ice cold barrel on his forehead and hope everything will go smooth. Everything went fine, and they opened this door for us. As we walk down the first stair I get nervous, but also extremely excited. The stairs are concrete, and are so filthy they are black in appearance. We heard incredibly loud, ear popping music. I saw complete darkness and the door shut behind us. As we get closer to the bottom I see beams and rays of different color lights flashing in then flashing out. I notice many colors of lights just shining into our eyes so vividly causing us to go blind until our eyes adapted to the high level of brightness. As I turn the corner I see teenagers and young adults dancing uncontrollably. They are exchanging circle shaped colored pills from mouth to mouth and tongue to tongue. Siddhartha asks, “What is this place?” I say back to him, “This is a dance party called a rave. It’s time for Siddhartha to get wild. He had the best time of his life. Siddhartha thanked me for this outstanding experience. I thanked him for Siddhartha opening my eyes to different ways of finding myself. I showed him how to have fun and how bring out that hidden side deep within him.

A magical night in the big apple

“The Curious Incident of the Dog” using Christopher and “A Long Way Gone” using Ishmael
Setting- Time Square in New York City

Christopher had never met Ishmael before. His knowledge of countries and world capitals provided some knowledge of Sierra Leone. Yes, Christopher had experienced death before. The death of his dog, Wellington, the death of his pet rat, Toby, and the supposed death of his mother, but nothing had prepared him for the deaths he heard about during the Civil War in Africa starting in 1993.

Christopher and Ishmael met quite by accident. Both boys had been picked to be part of a special project developed by the United Nations. Originally, the project was to focus on children who had been part of the war; those children who had witnessed horrible atrocities, and yet were able to survive. The United Nations later decided to include children who exhibited special gifts. Christopher was chosen because he had special gifts. A gift that Christopher was not so sure was a good thing. Christopher suffered from a disorder known as autism, which in itself can make social interactions difficult. He was also a gifted mathematician and a devote puzzle solver. The executives at the United Nations felt children, no matter what their obstacles were, could come to together to heal one another.

That night in New York City was a snowy one and for Ishmael and Christopher the night was magical. Together they traveled to Times Square and marveled at all the sights. Christopher had only been to a big city once, in search of this mother, and was awed at all the sights. Together they explored the nooks of the city. They had happened upon a large display of toys guns in a toy store window. Ishmael exclaimed, “Those are the weapons of my country.” In complete dismay Christopher asked, “what do you mean?’ Ishmael explained about the war and how he had been forced to kill or be killed. He confided in Christopher and Christopher confided in him. Christopher opened up about how hard it was for him to live a normal life. Christopher remarked, “I just do not know where I fit in. I am so different from the other boys.” Immediately, both boys know that they were different from other young men. They shared a special bond.

Over the course of the next week that bond became stronger and many nights the two boys would stay up until the sun was shining through the window telling the details of their lives. One night, not unlike the rest, Christopher opened up to Ishmael and said, “Wellington the dog was killed.” “Killed”, replied Ishmael. “Yes, killed by m y father.” Ishmael wanted to know more. “Were you lacking for food?” Ishmael asked. “No,” replied Christopher. “My father just killed him.” The simple, yet deep conversations continued. Each spoken word was quietly understood by the other.

The United Nation conference ended and as each boy entered the airport, Ishmael turned to Christopher and said, “I have lost my family to tragedy, but bin a strange way tragedy has brought me a new brother.” With tears in his eyes, Christopher replied, “I too have found a brother. Let us not forget what we have shared.” Each boy returned to his own country, but never forgot the friendship that was formed. That trip to New York healed each boy in ways that some will never understand.