The story of initiation is a special
type of American short story. It presents
a deeply confusing key incident in
the life of a child or adolescent confronting the protagonist for the
first time with one aspect of adult life, e.g. evil, death, old age, a
shattering of ideals. As a reaction, the young
person passes through various stages of coping with the experience:
from shock and disillusionment through the struggle for answers, until
he or she finally comes to terms with what has happened. As a rule, the
young person reaches a greater insight
into the complexities of grown-up life in the end.
The story of initiation tends to select a phase of a character's
initiation: Often it ends after presenting the shocking effects
an experience has on a younger child (= tentative initiation, as in ANGUS
WILSON's, Raspberry Jam, 1949, or GRAHAM
GREENE's, I
Spy, 1970). Or it presents an adolescent's passage into maturity
during which the young person is able to discover his or her self.
In literature, this process may be presented as a journey of initiation.
Bridges, rivers that have to be crossed, and journeys constitute the imagery
used to represent the initiation process as a rite
of passage from innocence through
experience to maturity.
Further examples of the story of initiation are:
- NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, Young Goodman Brown (1835),
- SHERWOOD ANDERSON, I want to know why (1919),
- ERNEST HEMINGWAY, The Killers (1927),
- BERNARD MALAMUD, A Summer's Reading (1950),
- JOHN UPDIKE, A&P (1961), Pigeon Feathers (1961),
- WILLIAM MELVIN KELLEY, The Only Man on Liberty Street (1964).