Coming of Age

The phrase “coming of age” is a term that is often used to describe stories in which a young person matures from childhood into young adulthood. Such stories are often defined by growing awareness of, among other things, truths about relationships, sexuality, death, priorities, and morality. Such stories also tend to contain journeys of transformation for its characters that involve movement from a place of innocence to a place of knowledge; from a place of immaturity to a place of maturity (at least to some degree); and from a place in which identity is unformed to a place in which identity is clearer. All these elements are present, to one degree or another, in “The Thing about Luck” which is, above anything else, thematically interested in Summer’s coming of age.

Each of the primary events and relationships in the narrative propel Summer forward...