The Story of Initiation
The story of initiation is a special type of the American short story. It presents a deeply confusing incident in the life of a child or adolescent which confronts the protagonist for the first time with an 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
- 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).
