History ManChild / Literature

* Kino of ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'' turns out to come from a country where [[spoiler:''all'' adults are examples of this -- they're given surgery to become adults, rather than allowed to gain genuine maturity and wisdom. Their apparent adulthood turns out to be nothing but the thinnest of veneers, and any real stress or deviation from routine reveals them to be little more than children in adult bodies, going through the motions of maturity. The scene where they childishly fumble for the "mature" way of dealing with one of them murdering [[LegacyCharacter the original Kino]] in what amounts to an overgrown temper tantrum is horrifying.]]

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': During Spring prayer, Myne travels alongside an adult priest who enjoys teasing people and generally likes doing as he pleases to annoying level. At some point, Myne internally quips that that he'd be easier to handle if he actually were a child.

** Downplayed with Sirius, Harry's godfather. He loves Harry very much but doesn't always act like the ParentalSubstitute Harry needs, he acts more like his buddy. He also is extremely HotBlooded and doesn't think through his actions like you'd expect someone in their early 20s to not have learned yet. On the other hand, this could be attributed to the fact that 22, one of his closest friends betrayed the others and he got framed, sending him to the wizarding version of Alcatraz, noted for having guards that feed on positive emotions of people before escaping and spending a year on the lam. As such, arrested development is a bit of an understatement since it's combined with truama and often having to transform into his dog form to maintain a sense of sanity. When he's forced to remain in his hated childhood home due to it being a safehouse, it really starts eating at him.

* Elves in general in Creator/JRRTolkien's universe, but especially in Literature/TheHobbit and Literature/TheSilmarillion. This is discussed over in ''Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth'', where Andreth tells Finrod that Men see Elves as overgrown, eternally young, children.

* The books ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'' have Percy Jackson. He is a teenager and not an adult, but still behaves rather immature. Nico di Angelo notes that the older he gets, the more he realizes how childish Percy really is.

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** Snape plays this more straight. He's held onto a twenty-year-old childhood grudge (at the beginning of the series) and doesn't keep his temper in check the way an adult would. He acts very violently emotional. He also takes this grudge out on two innocent kids, Harry and Neville. His love for Harry's mother, Lily, also doesn't come off the way an adult would love another adult. It comes off more as him LovingAShadow and that he was in love with the idea of her without realizing that she was a person with flaws. He was more or less obsessed with the first girl who was nice to him for thirty years at the time of his death without her ever having loved him back and her having married another man. While he's a very competanant potioneer and wizard, he still acts very much like the spiteful resentful and insecure preteen he was when he first entered Hogwarts. This could largely be attributed to his emotionally neglectful mother and his abusive father.

* Bertie Wooster from ''Literature/JeevesAndWooster''. His valet is implied to be acting as his ParentalSubstitute, and he's very childish in general--loves playing in the shower "like a two-year-old", doesn't know how to deal with women, and never got over his fear of his GrandeDame aunt.

* Quentin Coldwater of ''Literature/TheMagicians.'' On the face of things, he's just as intelligent as everyone else enrolled at [[WizardingSchool Brakebills]], but he soon turns out to possess a number of extremely childish traits that grow more and more extreme as time goes on: he [[AllergicToRoutine gradually grows dissatisfied with routine]], speaks [[InnocentlyInsensitive without thinking]], [[DidntThinkThisThrough fails to plan ahead]], has a tendency to [[NeverMyFault blame other people for his own mistakes]] or prioritize the mistakes of others over his own, and he's obsessed with the ''Fillory And Further'' book series (which were intended for children). After these tendencies end up totaling his relationship with Alice, she angrily describes him as a child - a point that completely fails to connect with him until it's too late.

'''Myn Donos''': I... I'm asking for career advice, from a nine-year-old.

* Edward of ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' is over 100 years old, a virgin, and decides to start a relationship with a human whose blood [[SupernaturallyDeliciousAndNutritious smells sweet]] to him and his presence puts her in constant danger. He gets better, although she gets MUCH worse.

** Downplayed with Sirius who got chucked into a horrible prison at the age of 22. When he gets out, he's in his mid-30s but has a pretty nasty case of arrested development. He loves Harry very much but doesn't always act like the ParentalSubstitute Harry needs, he acts more like his buddy. He also is extremely HotBlooded nd doesn't think through his actions like you'd expect someone in their early 20s to not have learned yet.
** Snape plays this more straight. He's held onto a twenty-year-old childhood grudge (at the beginning of the series) and doesn't keep his temper in check the way an adult would. He acts very violently emotional. He also takes this grudge out on two innocent kids, Harry and Neville. His love for Harry's mother, Lily, also doesn't come off the way an adult would love another adult. It comes off more as him LovingAShadow and that he was in love with the idea of her without realizing that she was a person with flaws. He was more or less obsessed with the first girl who was nice to him for thirty years at the time of his death without her ever having loved him back and her having married another man. Snape also doesn't have a reason for being this way like Sirius, he's just a vindictive asshole.

*** When one becomes a vampire in the series, they more or less stop developing, physically and possibly mentally. Since Edward was a young man when he got the Spanish Flu and converted, he hasn't aged since then.

* Quentin Coldwater of ''Literature/TheMagicians.'' On the face of things, he's just as intelligent as everyone else enrolled at [[WizardingSchool Brakebills]], but he soon turns out to possess a number of extremely childish traits that grow more and more extreme as time goes on: he [[AllergicToRoutine gradually grows dissatisfied with routine]], he speaks [[InnocentlyInsensitive without thinking]], he has a tendency to [[NeverMyFault blame other people for his own mistakes]] or prioritize the mistakes of others over his own, and he's obsessed with the ''Fillory And Further'' book series (which were intended for children). After these tendencies end up totaling his relationship with Alice, she angrily describes him as a child - a point that completely fails to connect with him until it's too late.

* Quentin Coldwater of ''Literature/TheMagicians.'' On the face of things, he's just as intelligent as everyone else enrolled at Brakebills, but he soon turns out to possess a number of extremely childish traits that grow more and more extreme as time goes on: he [[AllergicToRoutine gradually grows dissatisfied with routine]], he speaks [[InnocentInsensitive without thinking]], he has a tendency to [[NeverMyFault blame other people for his own mistakes]] or prioritize the mistakes of others over his own, and he's obsessed with the ''Fillory And Further'' book series (which were intended for children). After these tendencies end up totaling his relationship with Alice, she angrily describes him as a child - a point that completely fails to connect with him until it's too late.

* Literature/SherlockHolmes definitely. Though he ''is'' capable of being serious (especially [[BewareTheQuietOnes if his friend's life is threatened]]), he does [[BunnyEarsLawyer strange things]] to solve cases.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': Lieutenant Wes Janson of the ''Literature//XWingSeries'' is a classic example, between his pranks, general irreverence towards everything in life, and his boundless sense of humor. He ''is'' capable of being serious, when actively shooting at things, but it's not his natural state. However, he explains that this is a deliberate part of his philosophy of living life to its fullest, given the mortality rate of his [[AcePilot chosen profession]].
-->'''Janson''': I want you to remember something very important: ''you can't look dignified when you're having fun''.\\
'''Myn Donos''': I... I'm asking for career advice, from a nine-year-old.
* In ''Literature/{{Warbreaker}}'', the GodEmperor Susebron turns out to be so sheltered by his priesthood that he thinks he can conceive a child by sitting in the same room as a woman. Justified in that the high-ranking members of the priesthood were ''terrified'' of what he might do with his [[OneManArmy phenomenal Awakening powers]] if he knew enough about the world to take an active interest. Once he gets to spend time around people who treat him as a person instead of an object of worship, he proves to be a very precocious student.

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* Lieutenant Wes Janson of the Franchise/XWingSeries is a classic example, between his pranks, general irreverence towards everything in life, and his boundless sense of humor. He ''is'' capable of being serious, when actively shooting at things, but it's not his natural state. However, he explains that this is a deliberate part of his philosophy of living life to its fullest, given the mortality rate of his [[AcePilot chosen profession]].
-->'''Janson''': I want you to remember something very important: ''you can't look dignified when you're having fun''.
-->'''Myn Donos''': I... I'm asking for career advice, from a nine-year-old.

* Speaking of Cullens, Edward of ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' is over 100 years old, a virgin, and decides to start a relationship with a human whose blood [[SupernaturallyDeliciousAndNutritious smells sweet]] to him and his presence puts her in constant danger. He gets better, although she gets MUCH worse.

* Tigger comes off as this compared to the other animals in ''Literature/WinnieThePooh''. He's even sillier and more irresponsible than the other characters, he lives with [[ParentalSubstitute Kanga]], and he's best friends with her infant son, Roo.
** He appears older, but [[FridgeBrilliance when you consider]] that he "came to the woods" (i.e. [[LivingToys was purchased]]) more recently than the other characters, he's technically younger even than Roo.

* Charlie from ''Literature/FlowersForAlgernon'' is phenylketonuric man in his thirties who remains very childish, naive and idealistic. He had also never had wet dreams or been attracted to women at the beginning of the book, although the realism of this aspect of his disorder is somewhat doubtful.

* Speaking of Cullens, Edward of ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' is over 100 years old, a virgin, and decides to start a relationship with a human whose blood [[SupernaturallyDeliciousAndNutritious smells sweet]] to him & his presence puts her in constant danger. He gets better, although she gets MUCH worse
** Bella herself counts towards being a woman-child with her personality usually ranging from doormat to manipulative sociopath with her manipulation of Jacob & Edward.

*** When once becomes a vampire in the series, they more or less stop developing, physically and possibly mentally. Since Edward was a young man when he got the Spanish Flu and converted, he hasn't aged since then.

* Sharon from ''Literature/WorldWarZ'' is one of the more tragic examples. She's one of the "ferals", young people who grew up with little (if any) human contact after losing (or being abandoned by) their parents during the Zombie War, and has mentally never progressed beyond the level of a young child. However, she has retained some languages skills and is able to describe the events which led to her living wild, albeit in a very simplistic way.