Doug Beardsley's Rite Of Passage

All across the world, there a different customs that people have to mark the time when a young person gains more respect, responsibility, and freedom. For the young boys in the story “Rite of Passage” by Doug Beardsley, this custom is beating an older family member in a hockey game. At the beginning of the story the main character, who is a young boy in the hockey game, describes the events that happen on the ice to be “the most significant events in a young man's life”, and based on this story, he is correct. At the end of the story, the young boy experiences his “rite of passage in the dying moments of the day”. As the narrator shares his recollection of events, he explains his change from being a naive, young boy, to the start of the
He starts out as just another team member on the ice, and the puck is hard to reach. Eventually, the boy began to advance in the ranks, for him and the other boys had “been spectators for so long that some things were beginning to add up. Also, we were trying so many things that something had to work”. The narrator is open to trying new techniques, which will help him open his mind and enable him to develop as a person and a player. At the end of the story, the young narrator reaches the height of his transition, and he finally can outskate his elder brother score a goal against the other team. This goal marks the change that the young boy goes through, he is no longer a child anymore, but on the road to becoming a man. On the way home, he realises this by noticing his “voice was a good octave lower” and that he had gained a “new, quiet respect” from his brother. By earning respect from his older brother, he enters a new stage of development and is proud of his achievement. The hockey game in the story “Rite of Passage” by Doug Beardsley represents the development of the narrator. He transitions from being an immature, clueless young boy who admires the hockey skills of those older than him, to a young man who is confident, skilled, and respected. The hockey games put the young narrator to the test, but throughout them all he gains the knowledge and ability to overcome the challenges