Rites Of Passage In The Story 'A & P'

Francis Agbebaku March 07, 2011
Prof. Murray Engl-1020
Essay #2 A person usually undergoes rites of passage when they choose to become part of a certain group. When the rites of passage is completed then they are prepared to be initiated into the group, in the two stories read in class I noted two examples of rite of passage and initiation experienced by the main character of each story first-hand. In the story “A&P” Sammy is at work and identifies his rites of passage when three un-conformed females enter the store and steals his attention , when he see his manager mistreat the girls he feel he must quit in order to gain his un-conformed independence and join the group. In the story “Doe Season” Andy the daughter of a
hunter has her rite of passage when she is instructed to kill a doe, if she correctly kills the doe then she would be initiated into the group of hunters which would bring her closer to her father. When someone completes rites of passage going into initiation, it could give birth to a new lifestyle and responsibilities. In the story “A&P” the main character Sammy was at a typical day at work when three female customers find their way into the store.
When the girls walk in Sammy attention was quickly caught by the females and their different choice of clothing. The females are dressed in bathing suits but the beach was 10 miles outside of the town that they lived in. Sammy says it was their act of non-conformity that drew his attention. Sammy did not want to grow up and end up like his co-worker Stokesie which had a wife an two children but still worked at the A&P grocery store, but that’s the road Sammy seen his self drifting into. To Sammy the girls represented something bigger than just rebelling against the rules it was that they represented excitement inside of his boring town. The excitement that made his boring life more interesting, an exciting life that would pull him from his irony fate of growing old and having a life-long career at “A&P” and in order to join the lifestyle he would have to be initiated into it. First, before he began his rites of passage he identified the leaders of the group which he nicknamed “Queenie” luckily it was the one he wanted to impress because he desired her as soon as she walked in the store so determining to take the rite of passage when presented to him would be a “no brainer”. She was followed by he accomplish in non-conformity which were to girls that Sammy nicknamed “Plaid” and “Big Tall Goony Goony” which spotlight was blocked by the spotlight of Queenie which look the best of the bunch. In the store the store manager confronts the girls about the attire they have chosen to wear in the store he tell them it is against the dress code which erupts an verbal argument against the store manager, Lengel and the leader of the group Queenie inside the store. When Sammy see the argument he thinks back to the time he wanted to created a verbal argument with Lengel and becomes even more drawn into Queenie’s lifestyle and when Lengel kicks the
girls out of the store without letting them make the purchase he decides in order for him to be initiated he would have to also argue with Lengel. Hoping the girls see him he starts to argue with Lengel and as the argument escalates Sammy quits his job and leaves, but by the time he reached outside the girls was long gone. Sammy’s rite of passage was when he quit the job, and when he completed that he was initiated into the group of independence it may not have been with the girls he thought he would have on his side but he was free to be as non-conformed as he wanted now. In the story “Doe Season” Andy went on a hunting trip with her father for the first time to hunt for Doe. Her father brought her with him because he noticed that she always had an ability to draw animals close without them harming her. On their hunting trail Andy ventures off from the group an sees the first sighting of a buck by the time she get back to them the buck is gone this brings her down another notch in trying to be initiated by the group because they think that she is lying about the sighting. The next day the see a doe and the become very excited but when the choice comes to who will make the kill on the doe they give Andy a chance to redeem herself all she has to do is kill the doe when she shoot it she is certain that she has made a fatal shot but when the go to check they see the doe has left. Andy yet again is shunned by the group for not successfully killing the only doe they will see the whole trip. The next day they find the doe dead not to far from the camp sight killed with the fatal wound Andy delivered, the excitedly tell Andy of the great job she did and initiated her into the group bringing her closer to her tom boyish way and most importantly closer to her father. It is clear that when a person wants to be initiated into a group they most certainly have to go through rite of passage. It is almost like the rites of passage is a step in proven your ready to accommodate the new lifestyle. When Sammy in “A&P” quits it was to show that now that he quit he could take on any task that dealt with non-conformity as freely as he wanted because he didn’t have the stronghold of his job with him any longer. Even Andy killed the doe in “Doe Season” it shows she was capable to enough to hunt with the men and even kill animals with precision. The characters in these stories both where initiated into new lifestyles by completing the task that show their readiness also known as rite of passage.