What does the word “mature” mean to you? Is maturity a positive or negative trait? Could it be both?
Do you feel a pressure to act older than your age? Under what circumstances are people your age forced to act more mature than their age? Do you think that’s fair? Why or why not?
Relate some of these ideas to what we’ve read so far in Romeo and Juliet.
10 comments:
To me mature means that you are able to take resposibility for your actions. Maturity can be both a positive and negative trait. I don't feel a pressure to act older than my age. If they are the oldest child and they have younger siblings to watch out for. It would be important in this circumstance to be mature. Juliet is very mature for her age and she understands about love and how men sometimes are. Romeo on the otherhand can have is immiture moments. He stalks Rosaline at first and in an instant switches his focus to Juliet.
-Emma Kaye
Maturity, to me, means that you're able to think about everything that is said and done before it is said and done. Maturity involves taking responsibility for your actions too, as Emma said. Maturity can be shown in many different ways and is different for each person. Maturity is a positive trait because it helps you grow up and make smart decisions for the future. But, at the same time, maturity might be seen as a negative trait by many kids in high school and college.
I don't feel the pressure to act older than my age. Some people our age are forced to take care of themselves, because they don't have caring parents and don't live in a safe and healthy environment. Most things in life aren't fair but, because they acted mature and stuck through the tough situation good things will come to them later in life.
Juliet is forced to act older than her age because she's being forced to get married at age 13. As Emma said, Juliet is very mature for her age and is a little reserved when it comes to her love for Romeo because she's worried about how it will affect her future. But, because both Juliet and Romeo aren't mature enough to handle their own decisions, they rush in their marriage which leads to problems later on down the road.
-Ariana Naaseh Period 5
Well I think that maturity is something that comes with experiences. You aren't just born mature, and it really isn't something that is taught. Maturity is something that you gain an understanding of as you grow older and have experiences in which you must act properly.
One reason someone might be a mature person is, if like me, they are the last child of a number of siblings. For example: I am the youngest for four and my oldest brother is 22. I have gained a lot of maturity in my life just trying to relate to him and have a conversation with him without sounding dumb or naive (oh snap vocab). I've learned that being mature is not only acting older than you really are, but also understanding how to react to certain things, how to emotionally handle situations, and how to understand the importance of education and hard work.
One scene in Romeo and Juliet that stands out to me is in Act 1 scene 3. Juliet shows a lot of maturity after her mother asks what she thinks of marriage. She says, "I'll look to like, if looking liking move, but no more deep will i endart mine eye than your consent gives strength to make it fly." This quote to me shows that Juliet was mature in the situation of not over reacting, but also no underreacting, and giving the situation a good look before fully consenting to her mothers wishes.
So in truth, maturity is not just acting above your age, but the ability to intellegently deal with situations.
-Melanie de Arakal
I agree with Ariana in that i think that maturity means being ableto think before you act and being able to make smart decisions. Personally, maturity has nothing to do with age or acting a different age. I have known plenty of younger people who are very mature, and an equal number of immature older people.
Maturity is widely viewed as a positive trait, but I believe it can be both positive and negative. It can be positive because then you think things over more, and probably make better decisions. It can be negative because sometimes, when thinking things over, one can overthink things, which generally ends in confusion.
I do not feel pressure to act older than my age, but this might be a trait unique to me because I don't care very much about what other people think about me. I personally just try to be me. Although I know of other people who do act older than they are to try to fit in with older people, or gain respect. For example, people might try to act more mature then they are when trying to impress someone.
I do not think it is fair to act more mature than you are because then you are not being you. It could very well change your entire personality.
I do not think that Juliet is really mature. To me it seems like she's trying very hard to act mature,but she is only 14. Having grown up being forced to be mature, its only natural that she trys to be, but she does make rash decisions.
~Alison Wexler
I think that truly being mature means three things: to always take responsibility for your actions, to grow up (be physically matured), and lastly, to actually be able to run your life. Like if i see a little boy on the street and people think he acts mature, to me he's not. I don't see him as being mature first of all because he's not grown up and second of all because he has to rely on his mommy to do all his dirty work.
To me, i believe that maturity is definately a positive trait because those that aren't mature look like a bunch of animals. Like take me for example, when i am in public, i look like a crazy little man. That's just because im not mature yet. Which brings me to my next topic. Gaining maturity is a process that takes your whole life. I don't think that i know one completely mature person, except maybe Atticus in "TKAM".
I always feel that i am under pressure to act older than my age. It's probably because im just not comfortable with being mature, but i don't know. It appears also that Juliet is always being pressured by her mom to act older. After reading their conversation about marrying Paris, it really seems that way. Although she always does.
Juliet is always mature because she is always around adults! Whenever i am pressured to act older too i am normally around adults. It is truly not fair for parents, adults, and others to make us feel this way. Us kids should develope maturity over time, not have it forced into us.
-Maddang
To me, maturity signifys a person's ability to handle responsiblity. Maturity, in my own opinion, is a positive trait. I think so because if you're mature, people will take you seriously. And if you want to be reffered to as an "adult" then you must have this quality. I don't really feel a pressure to act older than my age because right now, I'm not in any position to take some great amount of responsibility, I'm just going with the flow. People might be forced to act more mature than their age when they are the eldest child, and they must watch after their siblings, or if they are put in an emergency, like a fire at school, someone must be a leader and be able to take responsibility for others than themselves. I think it is fair, because you have to grow someday, why not earlier? In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is a bit immature because he makes it all about himself, and thats not really mature. On the other hand, Juiet understands some things about love.
Maturity is basically what everybody has said before me. But I agree with what Melanie had said the most. Maturity doesn't just come to you out of nowhere. Maturity is something you learn over the years from lessons you learn or from your own experiences. Maturity means a lot of different things, but when I think of somebody mature, it's somebody whose adultlike. To be adultlike has a wide range of characteristics,so overall, maturity is many different(but positive) things.
When I think of maturity I dont see any negative traits in it. Maturity is always a good thing, never bad, in my opinion. To be too mature is nothing that will ever hurt you.
I have no pressure to feel older than I am. Sometimes I of course have to take the older role of being a sister, but to me thats no pressure, its just the way things are. In my opinion, I especially have no pressure of being more mature than i really am because I feel like nowadays i see so many around me that act like there four. I think that there are many out there that are forced to be able to take care of themselves. When going through life it may be hard for them, and yes it may not be fair, but in the end, it only makes them a stronger person, it sucks what they had to do to get there, but in most cases it helps them, not destroy them.
I feel like Juliet is a lot mature and knowing than Romeo. Romeo acts out on impulse quite often and Juliet is the one that thinks things through a bit more. She knows the way of life suprisingly more than Romeo. Romeo is a very big romantic and Juliet is more realistic and knows that things arent always picture perfect when talking about love.
Maturity is generally a good thing. It can also be a bad thing, however. On the one hand, it’s good because mature people often think more clearly and are able to handle situations more efficiently than a little kid. On the other hand, maturity can be a bit of a barrier to desirable parts of ourselves, such as creativity and imagination. Little kids have no inhibitions, no social “thought guidelines” to follow- that’s why you will often see little kids playing, pretending that they are on a space ship or in a castle or whatever pops into their head at the moment. This creativity is not necessarily something to be so casually and carelessly smooshed by the enforcing of social guidelines that make up today’s conventional view of “maturity.”
To be more specific in what I mean, I’ll explain it in a different way. Adults are mature. Adults would never imagine themselves on a space ship or in a castle. If they did, this would be quite awkward. However, little kids’ imaginations are much better for this very reason.
Here is the thought process of a little kid:
Floor Wood Trees Forest Unicornbunnycaterpillarspaceship
purplemonsterexplosionrocketcupcakebutterfly--cewervgrwgherljjw!
Here is the thought process of an adult:
Floor Wood Hey, there’s a chip in that wood! Did I make that chip? I’d better have that fixed!
Which is why, when you ask both the little kid and the adult what they have been thinking of after staring at the floor for 5 minutes, they will answer (respectively):
“Unicorns purple monster butterfly!”
“There’s a chip in the wood. We’d better have that fixed. Get me a phone book and I’ll call a repair guy… *sigh*”
Thus, the mature adult totally missed out on the epic battle between the unicorn and the purple monster that was waged in the forest, to which the little kid was the sole witness, while mounted on his marvelous flying cupcake-butterfly!
Imagination is not something to be wasted. That little kid may grow up to be an amazing artist or author, while the adult will stay rooted in the mundane experiences of their boring, everyday lives.
EK: You said, "Juliet is very mature for her age and she understands about love and how men sometimes are." I agree. Even though she is still world with love and overwhelmed by her feelings for Romeo, it's clear that she still is more practical or realistic. I think girls tend to mature faster than boys.
AN, I agree with your asessment that "Maturity, to me, means that you're able to think about everything that is said and done before it is said and done" and I also agree with MdA that "understanding how to react to certain things, how to emotionally handle situations, and how to understand the importance of education and hard work."
MJ: you say that "kids should develope [sic] maturity over time," and I think that you do that. But adolescence is a 20th century concept -- it's pretty new, this idea of an in-between time. Most kids before the 20th century were working at a trade by the time they were your age, and marrying and having families far earlier. Kids grew up fast, becasue they needed to, and because they were expected to. I think that adolesence has been stretching out for too long, now -- that not enough maturity is expected of high school kids. I think that as the future leaders of this nation, you should be thinking ahead to what you're going to mean to the world.
Even if it's a scary idea.
To me maturity means that you can be responsible for your own self. You can only gain maturity from experiencing and learning from certain events. people can mature from things throughout your whole life.
Maturity can only be a positive thing. When you mature from something, you grow from it whether you did a wrong or right thing. It teaches you not to make those same mistakes again.
-Hannah Gross
I thin teenagers are forced to be mature than their age. Peer pressure is a great example. If a friend is pressuring you to do something you are not comfortable with you have to have alot of maturity to stand up to that person and tell them no. Even though there might some consequences you now that you have ot make the right choice for yourself.
I think that it is very fair, Some day you have to face the real world that is full of wrong and right things and you have to be mature enough to make the right choices.
Juliet is forced to mature very fast. She is only thirteen and she has to act like a grown woman because she is marrying a man. But Romeo is not mature at all. He was in love with Rosaline and then he Suddenly was in love with Juliet.
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