Rite Of Passage ( 1983 )

In Conrad Philip Kottak’s “Rite of Passage” he mentions the three stages of a rite of passage. Anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep defines these stages as Separation, Margin, and Aggregation. Victor Turner, another anthropologist, focused on Margin, which he referred to as liminality. Not only can a rite of passage be an individual experience, but it can also be a communal experience which Turner called “communitas.” Many of us experience this “communitas” in different ways such as my Hispanic culture that experiences quinceneras. Quinceneras are a rite of passage for young girls’ transition from adolescence to womanhood. I for one never experienced this rite of passage.

The Rite of Passage is about young females who file their teeth down into points. This ritual is done to show their soul, and to beautify yourself. The teeth sharpening is done in Indonesia specifically to the Mentawai tribe, to serve everlasting life, and to purify your soul.

Maturity is a state that everybody tries to reach during their lives. Children spend their infancy, and sometimes adolescence, growing up and learning how to behave in the adults and work world. Schools teach them dissimilarities between these two different worlds. There isn’t a precise age in which kids become mature, it depends on the experiences they had, their society, their family and other causes. In the movie and novel The Giver, the community has a rite of passage where children, during the annual ceremony, become more mature and assume more responsibilities until they get into adulthood.

The paths taken in each person’s lifetime can associate with any factor or situation that one may come across. For example, one could come across a path that stands for tradition and the effect of traditional beliefs on a society like the one represented in “Dead Man’s Path.” Another example could be a path that stands for the power of love and the effect of unselfishness that makes one continue with life like the one represented in “A Worn Path.” An additional example could be a path that stands for overcoming doubts of beliefs as these may uphold or tear one apart like the path represented in “Young Goodman Brown.” No path is easier than another and they all hold a spectacular significance in each person’s life. Therefore, in this independent

A rite of passage is defined as a ceremony marking a significant transition or an important event or achievement, both regarded as having great meaning in lives of individuals. In Sharon Olds' moving poem "Rite of Passage", these definitions are illustrated in the lives of a mother and her seven-year-old son. The seriousness and significance of these events are represented in the author's tone, which undergoes many of its own changes as the poem progresses.

A rite of passage is a transition from one stage of life to another. These passages are pursued when one passes a milestone such as birth, maturity, and achieving adulthood. These milestones will clearly show changes in the characters life. It involves significant change in their views, and of society. A rite of passage is shown in Anthem, Shakespeare Bats Cleanup, and Great Expectations. The characters show significant changes as they transition through their life..

The main characters Toundi from Houseboy and Firdaus from Woman at Point Zero were unable to complete their rites of passage. It is evident from the begin of both novels that neither character would be reincorporated into society due to their incapability to “follow the rules” that were set for them as second-class citizens. In Firdaus’ case, women lived in a patriarchal society where women were supposed to be the submissive gender. However, she demonstrates the need for women to take charge of their lives and not live under the power of men. Toundi, on the other hand, attempts to encounter a life filled with advancement and improvements from the Whites, however soon realizes that the French have no intention of allowing Black people to

A twelve year old boy holding an Airsoft, sitting on a swing in a park at 3:30 p.m. in broad daylight was shot not two seconds after officers arrived at the scene. He died the following day from injuries.

Firstly, Merciad Eliade proclaimed the term rites of passage, in Unit One, as a term marking the transitional period in a person’s life as a very important aspect of their religion. While a rite of passage takes place, a person within a culture is given a new role and new responsibilities. Eliade states his opinion of the term rites of passage, as it “...implies a radical change in ontological and social status.” (Eliade, 184) When in comparison with Turner’s interpretation of rites of passage, defining “...rites of passage as ‘rites which accompany every change of place, state, social position and age,”’ (Turner, 512) Eliade and Turner’s interpretation of rites of passage correlate as they both imply a current change in one’s life. In Sonny’s Blues, Sonny changed his actions due to the social status of his performance in the underground club. Baldwin stated, “Sonny’s fingers filled the air with

1 According to Google Dictionary phrase "rite of passage" means a ceremony or event marking an important stage in someone's life, especially birth, puberty, marriage, and death. Sharon Olds gave her poems title "Rite of Passage" because in this poem she describes the state of adolescence and the rites of passage that lead to adulthood. Olds wrote about young boys waiting to be men. The spiker, who is the birthday boy's mother, describing the veiled adults in the children that arrive to her son’s party, "as the guests arrive at my son's party." The author wrote, "short men, men in a first grade," Olds chose "first grade" as a symbol of growing children because when child goes to first grade he or she becomes little independent from parents,

     After living their opposite lives for several years, the narrator fulfills a promise to his mother and watches over his younger brother. Through many revelations, the two find ultimately find a common ground about where they come from, the pain and the suffering of being trapped inside their status no matter how they tried altering it.

Throughout many works of literature, characters are described to go through a rite of passage, developing the plot and solving conflicts. A rite of passage is when a character goes through life changes, realizing his/her flaws and maturing as a person. Walter Lee Younger is a man that goes through many different character changes, which cause conflict amongst the other characters. Once he goes through his rite of passage, he is able to fix his flaws and mature. In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, characterization is used to portray that one must experience a rite of passage in order to mature.

Sharon Olds, born 1942, the author of the dark poem, Rite of Passage which is a poem describing a mother observing her first grade sons birthday party. Given the time Sharon Olds would have been growing up, she was born three years before the Holocaust ended, she got to witness first-hand the world repairing itself after the DISASTER , not just read about it, which for me personally adds a new level of disturbance to the text. She wrote in a way that is brutally honest and it talks about a topic that not everyone can stomach. It hit one of the key flaws of humans, we are constantly trying to one up each other, and lose our innocence and that in itself is tragic. In the poem it is children, ages six and seven.

Rite of passage is defined as a ritual event that marks a person’s transition from one status to another. In the story Sexy by Jhumpa Lahiri, the main protagonist is Miranda who is in search of a home. Miranda lives in a big city where her ethnicity is the majority, but she finds solace in an Indian race. Miranda will soon learn love doesn’t constitute acceptance, or self-worth. The word sexy is the catalyst of the story and without the expression of the definition, Miranda would still be the other woman. This would indirectly make Miranda move from dependent to independent making herself the girl in a big city the can navigate her life with a good conscience.

I interviewed my Mother’s rite of passage she experienced going from single to married. She explained that Vietnamese weddings are one of the most important ceremonies in Vietnamese culture. Marriage is a big step that changes a Vietnamese woman’s life because marriage is the time they leave their own house and family to enter to a new house and new family. My mother said she was very nervous at that time because she did not know how her life will be at the new house with her husband’s family. I asked her how she knew my father.