Gorilla, My Love Group

Question:

lilly07
lilly07

How exactly can I prove and explain "initiation", meaning Hazel´s transformation within the story?

„Raymond´s Run“ has been seen as a ground-breaking initiation story. Looking at the meaning of initiation (e.g. Arnold van Gennep or Joseph Campbell) I´m wondering in how far I can use the “original” meaning of initiation for this story, to be precise for the “transformation” of Hazel within this story? The topic of my term-paper is the initiation process in "raymond´s run" and therefore I need to find a way how to prove it and where to find it in the story. Looking for instance at A. van Gennep you find that he talks about three different stages incl. transformation. Since he only considers stages like child - adult - marriage etc. it is not quite easy to transfer his theories into the story.Besides that his stages are connected to rites, which is hard to find in "Raymond´s Run". Therefore it would be great if any of you has another approach/idea concerning this topic.

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Posted by lilly07 on Saturday February 24, 2007 at 5:55 AM and tagged with gorilla, my love, initiation, rites, transformation.

Answers:

  1. lilayakima
    lilayakima Student
    College - Senior

    There are certain indicators within a text to symbolize an initiation process, like the change of a name, a journey etc. In the case of Hazel one can find especially the name change theme (when she insists on being called by her full name) and also the journey motif (trip to south - especially meaningful as it is a black girl who experiences a initiating moment). However, the story is an example of an uncompleted initiation story - one can't really tell in what way Hazel is affected by her experiences. At the end she remains confused and puzzeled so she is not able (at that point) to realizes the differences between the meaning of irony and real talk which still marks her as a child. She is on her way but does not experience the full initiation within the stoy.

    Have written my final paper about this (unfortunately in German). 

    A good introduction to the Initiation motif in literature is Peter Freese.

    I hope I could help you! Katja 

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    Posted by lilayakima on Thursday May 1, 2008 at 2:39 PM