Comment on Genre

Lord Jim is a good example of a bildungsro-man, a coming-of-age story in which a young protagonist must face painful challenges on his or her road to adulthood. Bildungsromans are educational novels that show how other young people have weathered the necessary initiation into adult society, with its mature values. In his case, Jim is plagued by his act of betrayal, when he forsook his duty and left the Moslem passengers to die on the Patna without trying to save them.