How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
But Gabriel did not want his performance—the most important of his career so far, and on which so much depended—to be obliterated; he did not want to be dismissed as a mere boy who was scarcely ready to be counted in the race, much less to be considered a candidate for the prize. (2.2.45)
When Gabriel is selected to preach in the huge revival, he knows that there's more riding on it than just the audience members' souls. It's a test; if he preaches well, converts sinners into saints, inspires people, then he will be considered a man. If he fails, however, he will still be a boy.
Quote #8
Then he would no longer be the son of his father, but the son of his Heavenly Father, the King. Then he need no longer fear his father, for he could take, as it were, their quarrel over his father's head to Heaven—to the Father who loved him, who had come down in the flesh to die for him. Then he and his father would be equals, in the sight, and the sound, and the love of God. (2.2.332)
John sees, in his conversion, a way out of his terrible family dynamic. If he can become saved, then he will have a new father, God. He will no longer have to kneel before his father in order to get to God; he'll have a direct line, like the batphone. This is why his religious conversion is so important to his becoming an adult.
Quote #9
Her aunt had come second in the series of disasters that had ended Elizabeth's childhood. (2.3.7)
When Elizabeth is a child, she is neglected and unloved by the adults around her. Even so, she still remembers it as a time of innocence; when her childhood ends it is, for her, disastrous. Her coming of age is full of death, separation, and cruelty; no wonder she thinks of adulthood as a disaster.