On the first day of discussion in the “Coming of Age Novel” course, we talked about what it means to come of age. The meaning of the phrase should be useful, after all, since we plan to talk about various examples of it for an entire semester. We hardly reached a clear consensus, however. Some people held the idea that a coming of age is a clear-cut event or ordeal after which you are an adult. This idea is upheld by many cultural traditions. My grandpa was a Boy Scout back in the 1950s. To join the Order of the Arrow, a national honor society for scouts, he had to complete an “ordeal,” which involved staying in the woods overnight, building his own shelter, and preparing his own food with few supplies. Though the ordeal wasn’t explicitly a coming of age ceremony, it’s a good example of a specific event which is supposed to change someone profoundly. However, most people seemed to agree that coming of age is more of a process. Even a major experience can shape a person throughout...