Content introduction

Conflict and personal growth: The protagonist’s path toward maturity is not an easy one. They make mistakes and are usually at odds with society. But as the story continues, the protagonist slowly accepts the ideals of society and society accepts them back.

Maturity: The protagonist demonstrates immense psychological growth, change, and maturity by the end of the novel. The story sometimes ends with them giving back and helping someone else on the path to maturity.

The terms “Bildungsroman” and “coming-of-age” are sometimes used interchangeably, which is not always correct. A coming-of-age story is a catch-all term for a novel about growing up that can fall into nearly any genre; a Bildungsroman is a specific genre of literature about the growth and education that a character undergoes from lost child to mature adult. Many novels about maturation can be considered coming-of-age stories, but not all of them can be considered a Bildungsroman.
Read these Bildungsroman novels to better understand the genre’s specific voice and concept of finding maturity along a journey:

1. 
   Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847): Follows a young woman from her abusive childhood to her life as a young adult making friends, working as a governess, and falling in love with her employer. Along her journey of self-development, Jane struggles to find her place and her purpose in society.
   
2. 
   Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (1861): Tells the story of an orphan named Pip who comes into money, leaves his life of poverty, and starts over living the life of a gentleman. The novel follows his personal growth and development over the course of decades.
   
3. 
   A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (1916): Tracks a young man named Stephen and his religious and intellectual awakening as he questions the teachings of the Catholic church. As he matures, his new beliefs trigger a rebellion and he exiles himself to Europe.
   
4. 
   The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (1951): Follows Holden, a jaded teenager expelled from boarding school who is easily annoyed by everyone and everything. The book follows his journey from living a life of angst to finding true happiness.
   
5. 
   To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960): Tells the story of a young girl who experiences hate from her community when he father defends a black man accused of committing a crime in the south. At the beginning of the novel, she’s an innocent, immature girl. But as the story progresses and she witnesses injustice and racial prejudice, she learns that life isn’t always fair.
   

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While people have always told stories about coming of age, the specific genre of the Bildungsroman originated in Germany in the early 19th century. In its early form, the Bildungsroman was regarded as a novel that had educational as well as philosophical value for young adults, because it portrayed characters who not only strove to better themselves, but who were able to outgrow or leave behind childish behaviors in the pursuit of a higher aim.
The example given most often is Johann Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, in which the main character (Wilhelm) seeks to escape the mediocrity of his middle-class upbringing and lead the life of an artist instead. The book contains many of the plot elements that later became hallmarks of the genre: Wilhelm endures heartbreak, has his artistic aspirations crushed, gets sent away from home by his parents to learn a thing or two, squanders his fortune unwisely, and faces financial ruin.
By the end of the novel, however, Wilhelm shows signs of having matured as a result of his experiences. Not only has he begun to find some success for himself as an actor, but the book ends with him taking a strong moral stance: he sets off on a journey to find and reprimand another character, whose selfish behavior had ruinous consequences for one of Wilhelm's friends. This focus on personal growth and self-realization—particularly through making and learning from mistakes—remains the key feature of the Bildungsroman. The genre grew in popularity dramatically during the 20th century and spread to different cultures around the world.