How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Everyone had always said that John would be a preacher when he grew up, just like his father. It had been said so often that John, without ever thinking about it, had come to believe it himself. Not until the morning of his fourteenth birthday did he really begin to think about it, and by then it was already too late. (1.1.1)
When John turns fourteen, he begins to think about his own feelings about the preordained plan for his life. Part of his growing up has already been planned for him; everyone says he'll be a preacher, and he hasn't questioned it, so there doesn't seem to be another option for him.
Quote #2
Around the time of his fourteenth birthday, with all the pressures of church and home uniting to drive him to the altar, he strove to appear more serious and therefore less conspicuous. (1.1.9)
John is growing up; he's obviously no longer a child at thirteen-going-on-fourteen, and it's not so much that he is getting more mature; it's that everybody expects him to be more mature. In his community, growing up means going "to the altar," or converting and being saved. He knows it's expected of him, so he starts preparing himself.
Quote #3
John watched, watched the faces, and the weightless bodies, and listened to the timeless cries. One day, so everyone said, this Power would possess him; he would sing and cry as they did now, and dance before his King. (1.1.17)
John has been shown, over and over again, examples of what it will be like when he finally comes of age. When "the Power" possesses church members they are overcome, literally filled with a spirit that makes them dance or throws them on the floor. He's seen what he should expect, but it just hasn't happened yet.
Quote #4
It was somehow on that Sunday, a Sunday shortly before his birthday, that John first realized that this was the life awaiting him—realized it consciously, as something no longer far off, but imminent, coming closer day by day. (1.1.22)
When Ella Mae and Elisha are publicly reprimanded for getting too close to sexual temptation, John suddenly realizes that he, just like them, will be expected to grow up, get married, have children, and raise them in the church. The community is showing him, once again, an example of what is expected of him, regardless of what he wants or feels.
Quote #5
"You getting to be," she said, putting her hand beneath his chin and holding his face away from her, "a right big boy. You going to be a mighty fine man, you know that? Your mama's counting on you." (1.1.107)
Jeez, no pressure, right? Elizabeth is the only kind parent in the Grimes household, so when she tells John she expects him to grow up and be a "mighty fine man," he must feel like he wants to please her, not let her down. She tells him this on his fourteenth birthday; do you think it might contribute to his conversion later that day?
Quote #6
And this was the beginning of his life as a man. He was just past twenty-one; the century was not yet one year old. He moved into town, into the room that awaited him at the top of the house in which he worked, and he began to preach. He married Deborah in that same year. (2.2.17)
Switch gears; we're talking Gabriel now. Just like John, Gabriel becomes a man when the Lord saves him. When he converts he becomes an adult with a vengeance; he starts preaching, moves into town, and even gets married. Just as John knows that these things are expected of him, Gabriel seems to intuit it as well.
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.
Quote #10
"He done made fourteen," she said.
"You hear that?" said Sister Price, with wonder. "The Lord done saved that boy's soul on his birthday!"
"Well, he got two birthdays now," smiled Sister McCandless, "just like he got two brothers—one in the flesh, and one in the Spirit." (3.1.141-43)
John's birthday does double-duty this year. Not only does he turn fourteen, which is cool in and of itself, but he is saved by the Lord. Sister McCandless says he has two birthdays (even though they're technically on the same day) because he has been reborn; he's become a Christian.