Stories of the young man's journey to manhood are a staple of American literature, especially in the mid-twentieth century, with Hemingway, Fitzgerald (whom Michael likes, even though he doesn't understand people like that), and in the 1950s, especially in the rebellious coming of age accounts of Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, and the poetry of Allen Ginsberg. War, as well, is an initiation, as in the novels of Norman Mailer and James Jones. The idea of "passing for white," as Eden Santana does, was actually a popular fiction and film motif of the era.