Coming of Age

Coming of age refers to the maturation of an individual's emotions and intellect through difficult situations. Loo’s coming of age involves the way she handles growing up in an unusual lifestyle and how she reacts when she is confronted with Hawley’s criminal background. Hawley’s coming of age results from his realization that he wants something more than a life of crime and his inability to live a normal life because of his past. After Loo and Hawley mature, they come to terms with Lily’s death and Hawley’s role in her death.

As a child, Loo accepts her unusual lifestyle with Hawley without question or complaint. In Olympus, Loo watches the way Hawley handles the men who torment him and copies his example. She never tells her father about the students who are tormenting her at school. Instead, she takes...