LG2 English 20-1 - Research on the author and the content PDF

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Research on the author and the content...

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Pre-reading: 1. The simple definition of "initiation" is a process of admitting someone or being accepted into a secret or obscure society or group, typically with a ritual. For instance, we can be initiated into various religious initiations which are Hindu Diksha, Christian baptism or confirmation. Many tribes have young kids, especially boys, initiated into adulthood. The more well-known initiations are graduations, sororities, and recruit training.

2. I believe that initiation and freedom work in opposition to one another. Because when we become a part of a group, we have to give up a bit of freedom to follow their rules. Since a group is a collection of individuals who have at least one or more similar characteristics, we are hardly different from other members of the group. To be initiated into something, we have to give up a lot of our independence, and we have to learn how to think like them. Therefore, if we conform to a group, we can feel more related to other human beings, but we may lose our sense of freedom, and vice versa.

After reading Nhi Nguyen Mrs. Cameron English 20-1 25 September 2018

Developing a sense of self is an essential part of every individual becoming a mature person. However, most adolescents often find difficult in feeling belong to the society, so they are trying to fit in by conforming to other people. As a result, they may feel more related to other human beings, but they lose their identities and their freedom. In the short story "Initiation," Sylvia Plath reveals when a proud, reflective adolescent girl develops her personality within the security of a group, she may find that conforming to the group requires the sacrifice of her values and her individuality. In the end, she slowly realizes that being an individual offers more opportunities to become a unique person. Through Millicent Arnold, Sylvia Plath suggests that young people who want to develop their identity to be genuinely independent and mature, they will have to separate from the group and face the possible loneliness of being a real individual.

Developing identity has never been easy. Initially, Millicent Arnold was an insecure, reflective and conflicted school girl who thought that "how horrible it would if one never changed... if she were condemned to be plain, shy Millicent of a few years back for the rest of her life." (199) Consequently, she was seeking acceptance and connection to other friends by joining the sorority

at Lansing High. However, Millicent was also proud, rebellious and free-spirited inside when "rebellion flooded through her" (202) because she felt "a denial of individuality." (202), then she "decided her revolt." (199) Although Millicent was obedient to her big sister, Beverly Mitchell, she was still feeling her pride diminished: "How absurdly funny, me taking orders from this girl like a servant." (203) However, she had waited years for acceptance and sense of belonging from other friends, so she had to restrain her pride to go through the final challenge of the initiation. Become a princess, which is the mold and the dream of most young girls, including Millicent, to be able to enter the ballroom where the couples were laughing in pairs and group together, no one alone. She thought that being a part of an exclusive set at Lansing High was the only way which could make her related to other human beings. That was how she made a change in her life to be a new Millicent who "would come to school, proudly, laughingly" (200) and could enter the ballroom through the main entrance. As a result, it did, somehow, bring her attention and acceptance from the others because "everybody would know, even the boy would know, that she was the one of the elects." (200) As Millicent said, "there was always the changing, the growing, the going on," (199) and this was just the beginning of her journey of developing her identity.

However, Millicent found that conforming to the group requires the sacrifice of her values and her identity. As following the rule of talking back and smiling in the club, she could not say anything unless her big sister asked her something or told her to talk to someone, and she could not smile, no matter how she was dying to. In order to be a part of the sorority, she would have to give up her freedom and identity to live as what other sorority girls expected. Moreover, the big sisters always called the girls being initiated by the label "gopher," including Millicent. A name represents identity, a deep feeling and holds tremendous significance to its owner; therefore,

giving others the label "gopher" was degrading and "it was a denial of individuality." (202) Besides, Millicent was bound to various unjust rules, such as taking orders from Beverly Mitchell, her big sister, carrying her books, and Millicent "mustn't talk to the boys outside of class or at lunchtime... or any time at all after school" (203) unless she wanted to get "a black mark." (203) Unfortunately, Herb Dalton was the one whom she had to be careful of, and he was too princely while she was much too vulnerable." (204) Although Millicent did not talk to him, just smiling was practically as bad as talking, so that made Beverly order Millicent "to go up and down the bus asking people what they eat for breakfast" (204) without telling them she was being initiated. "And from that time on, initiations didn't bother Millicent at all." (205) While taking a survey on the bus, Millicent met a "small and jolly" man who had "a ruddy, wrinkled face that spread into a beaming smile as Millicent approached." (205) He mythologically answered her question by mentioning the heather birds, which made she feel "a sudden comradeship with a stranger" (205) and reminded her of her identity. After that, Millicent realized that she did not need to belong to a group to feel related to other human beings. Furthermore, Millicent was looking for not only the acceptance but also the values of herself; therefore, the thought about Herb that “would he ask her out (if he ever did) just for herself, no strings attached?” brought the desire to be unique and original up and pushes past the need to be popular. Likewise, she could not leave Tracy on the outskirts because with her, "if there is such thing as a best friend, Tracy has been just that this last year." (201) If Millicent chose to join the club, she could not keep her friendship with Tracy because some sorority girls thought "Tracy was a bit too different." (202) Importantly, the reason which brought Tracy three blackballs and set her apart was inadequate because she was "knee socks to school, or carrying that old bookbag." Tracy completely contrasted the sorority girls since she was always open-minded with

people's freedom while they were close-minded with any difference. Therefore, it is difficult to choose between Tracy and the sorority. Additionally, there was another reason that influenced Millicent's choice: the heather birds. While listening to the sparrows' chirp, she visualized them as "pale grey-brown birds in a flock, one like the other, all exactly alike." (205) There was a contrast between them and the heather birds. The sparrows were typical small birds, and they always appeared in a flock to have a feeling of belonging and safety. However, the heather birds "would go singing and cooing out across the great space of air, dipping and darting, strong and proud in their freedom and sometimes loneliness." (206) Although the loneliness could be the cost of being different and being free, "it was then that made her decision." (206)

Consequently, Millicent decided not to join the sorority after all because she realized that she would have to separate from a group to develop her identity and to be truly related to other people. Although the most comfortable victory of which "would be her coronation as a princess labelling her conclusively as one of the select flock," (207) it was not what she wanted. The reward for conformity would that everybody liked her except herself because she did not live for herself. Hence, instead of being a princess and conforming to others, Millicent had learned there were other ways of getting into the ballroom and people's life. She would break down the nonsense rule, and stereotypical mode of being a princess not only to keep the beautiful friendship with Tracy but also be related to everybody. Even though Millicent knew that the victory which she chose was much harder than the other one, she accepted it to figured out herself which is the hardest part of her journey. In the end, she initiated herself into "her own private initiation" (207) which is her club of one, her identity. Millicent was reborn to be herself, and then there came a "melodic fluting" (207) which must be the song of the heather birds as

they were welcoming her to freedom and celebrating her triumph that she found her value of identity. It was the comfortable sound or the pleasant feeling and the harmony that Millicent has just found since she figured out herself and she understood to balance her personal desire and her freedom of being true to herself. She would be free and proud of herself as the heather birds which was flying high in the blue sky and flashing their wings against the winds.

In conclusion, through Millicent, Sylvia Plath suggests that developing identity can put young people in a dilemma which they may choose whether conforming to a group or being independently, but they will realize that to develop their identity, they will have to separate from a group and face the possible loneliness of being true to themselves. Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, people do not lose their being in the society in which they live because people are born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of themselves....