I recently came across a book by James Scott Bell that lays out an interesting premise about something he calls the 'mirror moment'.
It's Bell's theory that there is a single moment in the middle of the story where the main character takes a "long, hard look at himself (as in a mirror). He asks, Who am I? What have I become? Who am I supposed to be?"
Bell says if you can nail that moment, everything that comes before and after it will have more depth and resonance.