Literary notes about adolescent (AI summary)
In literature, “adolescent” is often employed to evoke a phase of vibrant energy, intense transformation, and poignant vulnerability. Authors use the term to capture the raw physical and emotional turbulence of youth, as seen in portrayals of vigorous curiosity and emerging passion [1] and detailed accounts of physiological change [2]. It also serves to underline the clash between youthful defiance and established order—illustrating both rebellious impulses and moments of introspection [3]—while concurrently conjuring nostalgic reminiscences of a once-fleeting yet defining period [4], [5]. Whether emphasizing the physical appearance or the inner turmoil of growing up [6], [7], the word enriches literary narratives by embodying the multifaceted challenges and dreams of this formative stage [8].
- At college all his adolescent curiosities are lavishly gratified.
— from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister - The second stage of a boy's physical development, the early adolescent stage—twelve to fifteen years—is the physiological.
— from The Boy and the Sunday SchoolA Manual of Principle and Method for the Work of the SundaySchool with Teen Age Boys by John L. Alexander - The first practical rule would be that of the jealous sire: ‘No males to touch the females in my camp,’ with expulsion of adolescent sons.
— from Totem and Taboo by Sigmund Freud - At all times, and for all time probably, similar tales, more broad than long, will form favourite talk or reading of adolescent males.
— from The Palace of Pleasure, Volume 1 - Its effect upon me was to make me in many respects adolescent again.
— from Tono-Bungay by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells - As he stood in the doorway of my office, my first visual impression was of an emaciated adolescent, seasick green, prematurely balding.
— from Backlash by Winston K. Marks - I sprang to my feet while she turned about and came towards me bravely, with a wistful smile on her bold, adolescent face.
— from The Arrow of Gold: A Story Between Two Notes by Joseph Conrad - Deficiency sometimes does not reveal itself definitely until the pre-adolescent period or early adolescence.
— from Mental Defectives and Sexual Offenders Report of the Committee of Inquiry Appointed by the Hon. Sir Maui Pomare, K.B.E., C.M.G., Minister of Health by New Zealand. Committee of Inquiry into Mental Defectives and Sexual Offenders
