Society needs to stop being the
individual’s main focus. Society members
value how they are deemed by their peers more than their own values that they
have found meaning in. These members of
society must remember that what they believe is more important than what their
society believes. Individuals look
outside of themselves for acceptance and guidance but rites of passage in our
society, however, have yet to be defined, or have new definitions. Rites of passage in the United States have
more focus on the individual than on society’s views. Of course, there are rites of starting a
career, having a family, making a lot of money, etc., but these rites truly
have no meaning unless the individual gives them some. Individuals have allowed society to govern
their lives with these rites because they blindly make decisions based on how
others will think of their decisions. Modern
society has given individuals power to choose what life means to them and what
rites of passage they can take; individuals now need to start choosing for
themselves.
Society will always have its
overarching, very general rules. High
school, for instance, is seen as the only true rite of passage in our
society. No other ceremony is so wide
spread than the high school graduation.
Students don’t really take much from the graduation though. My own observations indicate that high school
does not seem very important to high school students and does not graduate them
to adulthood because the students themselves are not recognizing their
transformation. Vivienne Collinson and
Lynn Hoffman studied high school students to determine the success of secondary
education in the United States and stated, “that American high school classes
continue to be unsuccessful and boring to students” (2). However, what does make students feel more
adult is the ability to drive, making friends, and the social responsibility high
school culture binds students to. These
are the activities students believe to be important. In this case society has allowed for students
to choose whether graduating from high school is important or if driving a car
is more important to them.
In the Maasai culture, meaning to the
initiation of adolescence to adulthood is thrust upon the initiated. The initiated does not get to choose the
meaning of this sacred ceremony and if he tried, he would be shunned from
society. In “The Initiation of a Maasai
Warrior,” Saitoti’s father describes to him what the meaning of the
circumcision ceremony is. His father
states, that “[t]here is a deeper meaning in all of this. Circumcision means a break between childhood
and adulthood” (Saitoti 139). Saitoti may
believe in this meaning as does his father, but the meaning can only be true if
the initiated believes in it. In this
particular culture, if Saitoti had not “believed,” and as a consequence
flinched as the knife cut through his foreskin, his family “would be spat upon
and even beaten” (Saitoti 140). He would
forever be embarrassed; this sounds as if he is forced into “believing” this
rite is life changing. Unlike the Maasai
adolescents, our high school students take glee in their small rites and choose
them for themselves.
“Makes Me Wanna Holler” is an
excellent example of an American individual choosing for himself what he wants
to be. Nathan McCall finds meaning in
his life within the confounds of prison.
McCall describes his observations of an inmate who was well respected,
“[i]t amazed me to see how much the so-called tough cats respected Jim” (238). He goes on to describe what made Jim so
dominant, “I figured out that the characteristics that made [Jim] so widely
respected had little to do with how he looked; instead, it was his manly
demeanor… Jim didn’t have to make a rep
for himself as a thumper. He could whip
a man with his sharp mind and choice of words far more thoroughly” (McCall
239). Jim, and later Nathan, chose to
escape the view of their jailhouse culture.
McCall explains, “I and everybody else I knew had associated manhood
with physical dominance” but he and Jim found better meaning for themselves as
“progressive,” witty men (239). They
even went on to prove that meaning to other inmates that were “baad cats” on
the outside. Because he takes control of
his own rite of passage, McCall goes on to become a healthy adult; after being
paroled he goes to college and finds a career in writing for the Washington
Post.
Nathan McCall chose to go against the
status quo of jailhouse culture but an example from Tim O’Brien suggests that
one does not always need to decide against what his society tells him is right
to make an individual choice. In the
story “On the Rainy River,” O’Brien is faced with the terrible decision to
follow society’s instructions of answering his draft notice or running away
from this fate to Canada. At the end of
the piece, O’Brien explains how difficult it was to take the dive toward Canada
from the Rainy River – just twenty yards off the Canadian shore. He struggles with his decision and feels as
though everyone is watching him. He
states, “[a]ll those eyes on me – the town, the whole universe – and I couldn’t
risk the embarrassment” (O’Brien 187).
He fails to make the jump but he does make the decision for
himself. Even though it is his
embarrassment from society that keeps him on the boat, he wrestles with the
decision for a long time and proves that he alone made the decision. That day Tim O’Brien took a rite of passage
and had become a man, not because he went to war, but because he makes a very
big decision that impacts the rest of his life and the life of many others.
Society and individuals do not only
define the rites for the transformations into adulthood, however. Many believe that society over steps its
bounds when it demands a say in the way we die.
One of these people is Melvin I. Urofsky who writes of “Two Scenes from
a Hospital.” Urofsky chooses his
examples wisely in an effort to show that only the individual should have the
right to define the way she dies. In
both scenes, doctors and hospitals take advantage of their authority to either
keep a patient alive against his and his family’s will or try to disconnect a
patient from life support against her and her husband’s will. Urofsky explains, “the key issue is that of
who decides what is best for a terminally ill person” (365). Certainly though, we should not allow society
to decide our ultimate fate. Why should
we? Urofsky’s examples show that if
given the right, society will define our entire fates, but we must believe that
we have our own will to decide our own fate.
Why else live?
In death we face the ultimate rite of
passage into the void of the unknown. Death
is possibly the most important rite we have.
Norman Cousins shows the value of deciding one’s own fate in his essay
“The Right to Die.” In this example
Cousins explains, that “an important aspect of human uniqueness is the power of
free will” (371). Dr. Henry Van Dusen
and his wife take their own lives in their own free will. Cousins states, “Dr. Van Dusen had been
president of Union Theological Seminary… He enjoyed world status as a spiritual
leader. News of self-inflicted death of
the Van Dusens, therefore, was profoundly disturbing to all those who attach a
moral stigma to suicide and regard it as a violation of God’s laws” (371). As Dr. Van Dusen was religious leader, it was
a surprise that he had taken his own life, but why? Why shouldn’t he be able to make his own
choice of death because he belongs to a society that is so against
suicide? Van Dusen practiced his free
will and chose his own fate. This is
nobler than blindly following the rules of an entity that you may not agree
with. In a society that is pro freedom
and independence we do not have to abide by all the guidelines that are set in
place.
Instead, we must demonstrate our
individuality with our choices, choices that no one else can make for us. We must decide our own way through life by
choosing what transformations we go through.
Rites of passage mean nothing without the individual. Individuals place meaning on their rites and
recognize their own transformations before society can even judge. Throughout our lives, society has given us
the right to choose our own rites of passage.
Society will be critical of any decision we make but that cannot stop us
from choosing what we believe to be right.
Individuals will no longer allow society to govern their lives and
decide their fates. Our society supports
free will and so should the individual.
We decide the meaning of our lives.
Works Cited
Collinson, Vivienne, and Lynn M. Hoffman. "High School As A Rite Of
Passage For Social And Intellectual Development." Proc. of Annual Meeting
of the American Educational Research Association, April 1998, San Diego,
CA: ERIC. Web. 14 July 2013.
Cousins, Norman. “The Right to Die.” Rae and Fraga 371-372.
McCall, Nathan. “Makes Me Wanna Holler.” Rae and Fraga 235-242.
O’Brien, Tim. “On the Rainy River.” Rae and Fraga 177-188.
Rae, Judie and Catherine Fraga, eds. Rites
of Passage: A Thematic Reader. USA: Michael Rosenberg, 2002. Print.
Saitoti, Tepilit Ole. “The Initiation of a Maasai Warrior.” Rae and Fraga
139-147.
Urofsky, Melvin I. “Two Scenes from a Hospital.” Rae and Fraga 360-366.
No comments:
Post a Comment