Above all else, The Hero with a Thousand Faces shows us how a young person becomes a grown-up: taking on adult responsibilities, gaining the skills we need to pay the bills, and otherwise accepting that s/he can't be six years old forever.
The Hero's Journey almost always involves a coming-of-age, which is why it often involves teenagers like Harry Potter and Katniss Everdeen. That's the age when you start picking up all of these skills…and the age when the training wheels come off and you get to start solving big problems all by yourself.
Questions About Coming of Age
- Is a coming of age story limited to a certain stage in the hero's life? Can "coming of age" arrive in middle age, or even later?
- What purpose do the mentor, the guardian of the threshold, and other figures play in coming of age?
- What happens after a hero or heroine comes of age? How does the journey continue, and in what ways is it complete?
Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.
Coming of age is essentially the purpose of the Hero's Journey, a microcosm of the whole thing.
Coming of age is just one step on the Journey: a dry run to prepare you for other challenges.