Modern American Adolescents have difficulty maturing because of many different issues. Experiences that concern the adolescents of today are the same as those a century past. Abuse, dependency, and confusion of identity are only a handful of common issues teens need help with. The film Good Will Hunting, the short story "Her First Ball", and the poem "The City" are just a few great sources to draw conclusions from. Good Will Hunting gives a character that cannot come to terms with who he is because of the brutal abuse he received from his foster parent. Katherine Mansfield and her short story "Her First ball" teaches that to live in a dream, create an alternate identity, is to ignore the fundamental truth of our identity. C.P. Cavaty in "The City" provides a gloomy concept of how one becomes dependent with the familiarity of a place. Her "place" travels with us and represents our past and how it marks our future. .
Good Will Hunting is a film whose main character Will, cannot come to terms with his natural potential because of prior abuse. This manner of physical abuse has kept him close to his few friends, afraid to move on with his life. Will refuses to grow up. He is unable to stop blaming himself for his foster father's actions. It is because of this inability to move on that Will does not want to mature. He prefers to spend his time at parties or bars with his friends. Will also exercises his demons through violence. It is not until he is forced by the state to find help that he stops blaming himself. Through this complex character we can easily define the effect abuse can have on how a person matures.
In the short story "Her First Ball", the character Leila has recently moved to the city. One of her most notable experiences appears to be her first trip to the Ball. To her, going to this dance is an event of importance. Her friends do not share the same anxiety. While she is at the ball she becomes ensnared by the beauty and grandness of the dance.
