This is an exciting topic, one that suggests many different ways of approach and methods of organization.
Because your instructor specified that you should write “at least 5 paragraphs,” you’re free to write more—assuming your thoughts and your chosen method of organizing them require more than five paragraphs.
I suggest that before you create your outline for this essay you spend some time getting familiar with the bildungsroman as a genre. What is it? What are the most famous examples of it? What are some non-examples—that is, what distinguishes a bildungsroman from any other novel? If you have notes on the bildungsroman genre from class or from your course textbook, refer to those as well.
A good place to start to get a general understanding of a literary term is an encyclopedia entry. Here’s a good one on the bildungsroman.
Then, once you’re comfortable with the basic idea, dig a little deeper: refer to an encyclopedia of literary terms, or a reference on critical literary theory. This one and this one are a few entries from trusted texts, just to get you started.
While you’re researching, you might try searching your school’s database of literary journals to see if other students, authors, or literary critics have already explored the idea you’re about to explore, namely how A Complicated Kindness fits with the genre of the bildungsroman. Try searching with key terms like the book’s title and the word “bildungsroman.” The point here is of course not to copy what other people have said, but to sift through their ideas, weigh them, and perhaps allow them to shape your own perspective. It’s completely okay to skip this extra step. When it comes to writing about literature, there is plenty of joy and value in forming ideas solely on your own.
As you discover exactly what a bildungsroman is, you’ll come across many examples of novels that meet their criteria. Now, I doubt you have time to read those novels, but I bet you have time to read summaries of them, so you can get a better idea of how a bildungsroman unfolds. To find a summary of a particular novel, just type its title into the search bar here on our site.
My advice next is to take a very close look at the essay instructions. You don’t want to accidentally oversimplify them. Your instructor has already stated that the novel does basically follow the pattern of a bildungsroman. Notice, then, that your goal here is not to answer the simple question, “Is the novel a bildungsroman?” Rather, your goal is to answer the question, “How does the novel’s approach compare with that of a bildungsroman?” In other words, what aspects of this book are like a bildungsroman and in what way exactly?
By now as you’ve researched the bildungsroman you’ve made yourself a list of its key aspects. (What are they? Some sources list just two or three aspects to define a bildungsroman, some list more, and—at the risk of overwhelming you—I’ll share that this instructor lists eighteen key aspects of a bildungsroman.)
You might choose to organize your essay around those aspects. Let’s say that, according to your understanding, a bildungsroman must have three certain aspects (let’s call them A, B, and C), probably has another certain aspect (let’s call it D), and never has another certain aspect (let’s call that one E). So, in between your introduction and conclusion you can have five paragraphs: one for each of those aspects (A, B, C, D, and E), and in each paragraph, you can discuss how A Complicated Kindness does or does not exhibit that particular aspect.
Or, you might choose to organize your ideas by brainstorming a list of the most important, more pervasive qualities of A Complicated Kindness, and then spend a paragraph on each of those qualities, explaining how each is or isn’t characteristic of the bildungsroman. For example, an important quality of this novel is how Nomi grows as a person (which is definitely a typical quality in a bildungsroman), and another is how the novel's humor is quite dark (which is a quality that has very little to do with the bildungsroman).
Regardless of how you decide to organize your thoughts, the success of your essay will hinge on how well you illustrate the qualities that you do see in A Complicated Kindness. For example, it would be effective to write that Nomi is a sensitive person who actively reaches for answers and self-growth, as evidenced by her attempt to uncover the truth about her mother, Trudie, and Trudie’s involvement with Mr. Quiring. (There's your cue to discuss the situation, bringing in relevant quotes from the novel that illustrate Nomi's thirst for knowledge.) But, it would be ineffective to write that Nomi is sensitive and that she cares about what happened to her family in the past. Why? It’s too vague. You’re trying to claim that the novel aligns somewhat with the qualities of a bildungsroman, so throughout your body paragraphs, point to the precise people, events, and statements that back up your claim.
Remember to sandwich your discussion with an introduction and a conclusion, good places to tie your ideas together and say why they’re worth the reader’s consideration.
Good luck, and let us know if you have other questions!
https://www.britannica.com/art/bildungsroman
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095505632
As your instructor wants your work organized into a five paragraph essay, your major focus in completing this assignment should be clarity of structure, in which each paragraph has a strong single focus.
Introduction: In your first, introductory paragraph you should define the Bildungsroman, or apprenticeship novel. This is a genre focused on the coming of age of a protagonist, usually focusing on the protagonist's psychological development. Although it usually has some sort of plot structure, its emphasis is more on the protagonist's thoughts and feelings than on action.
Paragraph 2: The protagonist Nomi Nickel, a sensitive and rebellious young teenage girl, is a typical protagonist of the Bildungsroman in both her age and her rebellion against her environment. Thus your first body paragraph should focus on how the character fits the genre.
Paragraph 3: The second body paragraph should focus on the second crucial issue for whether a novel fits this genre: the degree to which the character evolves. Since she moves from stages of acceptance of her community, through rebellion to qualified acceptance, she fits the criteria for a protagonist in the genre.
Paragraph 4: Explore the novel's use of the psychological, another aspect of the genre. We encounter many instances of self-reflection by the character such as her speculation that:
It’s hard to grieve in a town where everything that happens is God’s will. It’s hard to know what to do with your emptiness when you’re not supposed to have emptiness.
Paragraph 5: This should summarize how your evidence points to the novel fitting within the genre.
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