🧭 Cultural concept
Coming of age
Lady Bird: The passage from adolescence to adulthood: identity, independence, family ties and the wish to leave home. Key question: How do we become who we are?
Little Women: Growing up as a young woman in the 1860s: family, money, marriage, art — and the right to own your work. Key question: Can a woman write her own story — and own it?
🌱 A Gerwig pair: same director, same lead actress (Saoirse Ronan), two heroines more than 130 years apart. Both films belong to the 2nde sequence « Looking ahead ».
Film study 10Lady Bird
🧭 Coming of age
A coming-of-age story about identity, a mother-daughter relationship, social class and college ambitions. We discuss the characters only.
Film study 11Little Women
🧭 Coming of age — owning your story
Four sisters in Civil War Massachusetts and a young writer who negotiates her own copyright. We discuss the characters only.
For the teacher: age ratings
- Lady Bird — R · trailer 0:00–1:20 only
- Little Women — PG · full trailer; the film can be screened
Ratings are the US MPA ratings. Full guidance: mode d’emploi professeur.
🪜 Suggested progression
- Session 1: the concept of coming of age (Overview, Context).
- Session 2: the trailer (0:00–1:20) and film language.
- Session 3: characters and the rewritten car scene.
- Session 4: writing (application essay as the character) and project.
- Session 5: Little Women — the trailer, two times and two lights, the publisher’s office.
- Session 6: the Gerwig pair — Jo March and Lady Bird, two heroines, one director.
- Bridge: Katherine Johnson’s ambitions (Hidden Figures) and Lady Bird’s — two eras, two dreams.
📅 Shared timeline
- 1848 Gold Rush near Sacramento.
- 1854 Sacramento becomes California’s capital.
- 1858 The Alcotts move into Orchard House, Concord.
- 1861–1865 The American Civil War: the time of Little Women.
- 1868–1869 Louisa May Alcott publishes Little Women.
- 1935 Tower Bridge opens.
- 2001 11 September attacks.
- 2002–2003 Lady Bird’s senior year; the Iraq War begins (March 2003).
- 2017 Lady Bird premieres.
- 2019 Little Women premieres.
📚 Shared vocabulary
| Growing up | coming of age · teenager · senior year · to grow up · to rebel · independence · a turning point |
|---|---|
| Family (characters only) | a mother-daughter relationship · to clash · to argue · to reconcile · to support |
| Future | college application · scholarship · financial aid · to move out · hometown · the East Coast |
| Identity | a chosen name · self-image · to fit in · to stand out |
| Writing & work | a manuscript · a publisher · copyright · royalties · to earn a living · to make one’s own way |
Sentence starters
- The key word for this theme is… because…
- In both films, the word… applies to…
Share this theme
https://trame-lycee.netlify.app/films/growing-up.html
Created by Madame Carole Paoli Pompougnac.