My Friend Flicka

A bildungsroman, German for “novel of education,” is a coming-of-age story about a young person who matures and grows throughout the course of the text. Classic examples of bildungsroman novels include The Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J. D. Salinger and To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee. These stories are narrated by a young person who struggles to understand the society around them, then learns about both themselves and the world through their journey and maturation. Often, the protagonist’s journey is one of disenchantment: With their maturity comes an acknowledgment of the difficult truths of the world. While the end result often varies, the protagonist often changes themselves, adapts to the world, or fights against their new worldview.

The typical bildungsroman structure begins with a young protagonist who faces a conflict with the world that they find themselves in. Due to a character flaw, immaturity, or issue with society itself, they are forced to change themselves or change the world around them as they progress to adulthood. For example, in David Copperfield (1850) by Charles Dickens, the protagonist, David, experiences a variety of hardships from a young age including poverty, an abusive stepfather, and forced labor in a factory.