How we cite our quotes: (Page.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The so-called rites of passage, which occupy such a prominent place in the life of a primitive society (ceremonials of birth, naming, puberty, marriage, burial, etc.), are distinguished by formal, and usually very severe, exercises of severance, whereby the mind is radically cut away from the attitudes, attachments, and life patterns of the stage being left behind. Then follows an interval of more or less extended retirement, during which are enacted rituals designed to introduce the life adventurer to the forms and proper feelings of his new estate, so that when, at last, the time has ripened for the return to the normal world, the initiate will be as good as reborn. (8.3)
A coming of age story involves the same kind of death-and-rebirth cycle that you see in the entire universe in Campbell. It's just one part of the larger process…kind of a practice transformation to prepare for the bigger ones that will eventually come our way.
Quote #2
It is the business of mythology proper, and of the fairy tale, to reveal the specific dangers and techniques of the dark interior way from tragedy to comedy. (27.3)
Fairy tales are associated with children and we're eventually supposed to leave them behind. But they're very powerful, and that power can stay with us when we grow up. There are plenty of old fogeys who still love Superman and Wonder Woman.
Quote #3
As we soon shall see, whether presented in the vast, almost oceanic images of the Orient, in the vigorous narratives of the Greeks, or in the majestic legends of the Bible, the adventure of the hero normally follows the pattern of the nuclear unit above described: a separation from the world, a penetration to some source of power, and a life-enhancing return. (33.2)
That cycle is what coming of age is supposed to prepare us for. Graduation, getting your first job, passing the driver's test… they're all designed to send us out into the world, to follow the Hero's Journey in our own way.