the book, and/or the author. If the reader builds a relationship with either the main character or author, then he/she will have some sense of reliability, familiarity, and personal growth. In other words, if an individual realizes what the protagonist is going through and the situation is realistic and believable, a bond will form and he/she can be informed by what the character does in the novel to overcome an obstacle. Based on this part of the Bildungsroman definition, it is necessary for the novel to be written realistically and with the author’s aesthetics and beliefs; otherwise, the objective of educating the novel’s readers will have no effect since they would not believe such things could happen. The historical features of the Bildungsroman give the author the opportunity to make a correlation between the text and the history. In a way, the novel can help provide a reflection of what the time, setting, and culture was like in the novel. In accordance with Tobias Boes’ The Apprenticeship of the Novel: The Bildungsroman and the Invention of History, ca. 1770-1820 (2008), the writer states how the individual formation of the protagonist progresses along with the historical development of time and setting he/she is in. Moreover, “the novel works with concrete examples rather than with abstractions and traces how the currents of history pulse through ordinary objects” (p. 275). In a way, coming of age writers also concentrate on the time and setting to help depict what society was like and how the characters reacted within it. At the same time, the sense of image and life the author created had also taught readers about social and individual development, particularly through the protagonist’s progression in the story from beginning to end. Hardin’s Reflection and Action (1991) described how the “Bildungsroman readily accommodated the concerns of a new middle-class reading
when he realizes she is with another man; thus, leads Wilhelm to take an alternative direction, leading him onto a journey with some of his friends. Overall, Goethe’s novel fits the structure of what the Bildungsroman is composed of, in reference to Morgenstern’s research. Based on the story, Wilhelm’s journey consists of many of the components, such as companions that assist him on his adventure and the plot being written in a chronological manner. Moreover, the character of Wilhelm is a similar variation of the typical male protagonist in the coming of age genre. At the same time, readers also get the sense of Beards’ four concerns that apply to the Bildungsroman’s values. According to Tobias Boes’ Beyond the Bildungsroman: Character Development and Communal Legitimation in the Early Fiction of Joseph Conrad (2007), Goethe “creates a sense of community not by allowing for projective identification, but rather by leading his audience to the recognition that another human life… can nevertheless contain a moral that may help make sense of one’s own existence” (p. 128). In reference to Boes’ article, he claims how the author was able to let individuals recognize their own selves due to the character’s self-reflection and identification in the story. Furthermore, “the more inner life and the less outer life a novel portrays the more noble and elevated it will be” (Hardin, 1991, p. 88). As a result from this literary component, reading about a character’s self-reflection and personal recognition permits us to analyze more about the protagonist, dealing with similar situations like this in real life, and our own and consciousness; thus, accentuating more on the protagonist’s internal conflicts is more valuable than concentrating on the external situations.