David Copperfield and the Goldfinch: The Coming of Age Novel in Two Centuries

Practically every reviewer of Donna Tartt's latest novel has used word to describe her work. In The New York Times, Stephen King writes that like best of Dickens, novel turns on mere happenstance, with Theo Decker a twenty-first century Oliver Twist and Theo's father a Fagin in Theo's life, along with Dickensian dollops of suspense. But while The Goldfinch can be called Dickensian, not least of all because of its length and number of coincidences, it is its characterization and plot that invite comparison to Dickens, and rather to David Copperfield and, structurally, to long tradition of Bildungsroman (coming of age) novel. Looking at Tartts work in that light, shows how tradition continues to inform modern novel, albeit with some significant differences from its nineteenth century predecessor. The best overview of Bildungsroman tradition remains Jerome Buckleys 1974 study, Seasons of Youth, which identifies a number of specific stages in hero's journey from youth to adulthood. These stages begin with depiction of a sensitive child growing up in a happy and protected atmosphere. But soon this comfortable world is disrupted. His family, usually his father, is hostile to his creative instincts, and he is forced to leave his comfortable home and make his way independently. On a visit to his old home, young man discovers that it has fundamentally changed, and that it impossible to return. Next, hero prepares for a career, even while he is torn between two loves, one debasing, other exalting. Finally, after many trials and encounters, he enters world as a mature individual and asserts his values. This pattern underlies paths of both young protagonists in David Coppetfield and The Goldfinch. In Dickens novel, David Copperfield enjoys a happy and loving childhood with his mother. As older David remembers, nobody knows better than do that she likes to look so well, and is proud of being so pretty (2). But separation soon comes in person of his abusive stepfather, Mr. Murdstone, with his black hair and whiskers and ill-omened black eyes (2). Eventually, David's mother dies, a victim of her abusive and repressive husband. But David always remembers her as she was, as the young mother of [his] earliest impressions, who had been used to wind her bright curls round and round her finger, and to dance with [him] at twilight in parlor (9). Similarly, The Goldfinch begins with narrators memories of his young mother. She too made an unpleasant marriage, but, eventually deserted by her husband, this modern woman makes a good life for herself and her son in New York City. Then one day, taking Theo to Metropolitan Museum of Art for an exhibit of Dutch painting, she dies in a terrorist bombing. dreamed about my mother [....] she came up suddenly behind me [....] it was her, down to most minute detail, very pattern of her freckles, she was smiling at me, more beautiful and yet not older, black hair and funny upward quirk of her mouth [....] a force all her own, a living otherness. (7) She had been young, playful, fun-loving, affectionate [....] a mother who threw Frisbees [...] in park and discussed zombie movies (145). The narrator defines her death as a dividing mark in his life. I've never met anyone who made me feel loved way she did (7). Each young boy remembers clearly last moment he saw his mother. David, sent away for a stay at Yarmouth, so that in his absence his mother can marry Mr. Murdstone, recalls his mother calling carrier to stop so that she can give David one more kiss. I am glad to recollect that when carriers cart was at gate, and my mother stood there kissing me, a grateful fondness for her [...] made me cry. am glad to know that my mother cried too and that felt her heart beat against mine (38). …