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5.4.6
 
The hero’s crisis of identity, his transition and initiation 
Something all modern fantasy heroes in children’s literature
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have in common is the 
fact that they are confronted with a severe crisis. If this crisis is not the direct cause of the 
quest, it arises
at the latest after the hero’s setting out on the quest. It is only through its 
successful conclusion – coinciding with the positive outcome of the quest and symbolised by 
it – that the hero can overcome the situation of crisis and transition in order to reach the 
ultimate goal of initiation and socialisation. As it turns out, the individual crisis and quest for 
meaning, identity and initiation are much more important, revealing, extensive and 
constructive than any external one possibly can. Triggered by external circumstances, 
exceptional and extreme individual situations arise. In most cases, the child hero has never 
before encountered difficulties of such an extent that he had to master on his own authority. 
However, with the help of such challenges he can develop and prove not only his worth but 
also his strength of character – thus literally growing to maturity with the task. 
A hero’s internal crisis concerns
two areas. Firstly, it consists of a more general search 
for the meaning of life, during which existential questions and insecurities emerge. Secondly, 
the hero searches for his own place within the overall system. In various nuances this crisis of 
personal identity is common to all child heroes in fantasy, who are walking a tightrope from 
childhood over the transitional phase of puberty towards maturity. Especially puberty poses 
serious psychological as well as physical problems. In its quality as a phase of deep-rooted 
change, of breaking away from parental authority and previous behaviour patterns, puberty 
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This observation is not limited to the selected representative corpus novels of this study but can be extended 
to the entire genre.

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entails a far-reaching disorientation caused by the partial and abrupt abandoning of past habits 
without having yet found something new to replace them with. Without the authority and 
protection of parents or guardians, the fantasy hero experiences the phase of temporary 
instability that puberty is with all its so far unknown emotions, impressions and encounters 
that have to be digested first. The crisis of identity is closely connected with a pronounced 
feeling of loss and a yearning for fulfilment and completion. Sometimes it is even experienced 
as a trauma, as some kind of psychological mutilation and the ardent desire for healing.
In our corpus novels the main focus of attention lies on the hero’s personal 
development, which is expressed by the internal quest: Crisis of identity, transition and 
maturation. During their transition from childhood to adulthood the heroes have to undergo 
trials, i.e. rites of passage, in order to be initiated, i.e. accepted and respected as a full member 
of society. Not only do they have to make sense of their environment but they also have to 
find and settle with their true selves after a period of pending, uncertainty, orientation, 
experiments and fears. Puberty as a time of upheaval is therefore the phase of development 
which most of the corpus novel authors choose for their heroes. It is during this period that 
future characteristics take shape, are strengthened and the way ahead is pointed. During this 
phase of transition young people are exposed to innumerable impressions, experiences and 
formative influences which they now no longer adopt passively, but reflect and judge actively.
Learning and education – something all child readers are confronted and familiar with 
– naturally rate highly in their life. Since their situation matches that of fantasy heroes who 
are either still at school, a comparable institution or in training, stories about education or 
apprenticeship are very popular, as for instance Harry Potter’s school days at Hogwarts or the 
apprenticeship of spook in The Wardstone Chronicles. Therefore it does not come as a 
surprise that the majority of our corpus novels feature such heroes on the edge of or during 
puberty, the neither-child-not-yet-adult phase. Of course there are exceptions. Just like Alice 
or Tom the Chimneysweep are portrayed in a state of innocence before puberty, current 
British fantasy novels like The Amazing Adventures of Raincoat Man, The Bogwater Witches,