Coming of Age

Coming of age is a major, overarching plot in the novel “My Side of the Mountain” by Jean Craighead George. Coming of age involves the character growth and maturation of an individual, usually based on real-world experiences, and may also be spiritual, emotional, moral, or physical in nature. The theme of coming of age in the novel revolves wholly around Sam, whose experiences in the wild lead to his coming of age in many different ways, and to a very positive end.

When the novel begins, Sam strikes out on his own from New York City, leaving his parents and siblings behind, and heads to his family’s ancestral property in upstate New York. Sam is an inexperienced outdoorsman, and his attempt to go into the wild is something wholly new to him. Though he has some knowledge of it based on what he...