Russell 1

Leighton Russell

Mathew Wilson

Writing 2

April 26, 2017

Initiation

With movements like feminism sweeping across the country, American society places a

huge emphasis in equalizing genders in all aspects of life. While it is true that equality between

men and women is of utmost importance for a healthy society it is absurd to think that boys are

the same as girls on a developmental level any more than on a biological level. An important

aspect in every mans life is his rite of passage and without it society is left with a host of

impotent and emasculated men that do nothing but leech from society. This paper will explore

the topic of initiation through the genre of poetry and its conventions of personification,

provocative language, run-on sentences, and repetition as well as through the genre of rite of

passage movies and its conventions of specialized vocabulary, historical quotes and appealing to

certain emotions, in this case rebellion. This will reveal the genius of poets and movie writers

that allows them to manipulate these conventions to accomplish their purpose in the context of

their particular audience.

Upon reading Rudyard Kiplings If a reader can quickly decipher his purpose of giving

advice to a son and calling a boy at the cusp of manhood into greatness. In light of this end,

Kipling uses personification to emphasize the battle of manhood. He implores his reader to

meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat these two imposters just the same (11-12). Here

Kipling likens the battle of morality to a physical battle in war. By turning these two ideas of

Triumph and Disaster into personas and summoning his audience to fight them as they
 Russell 2

would an invading enemy, he is calling upon battle knowledge, which speaks to the heart of

every boy. This also reveals, Kiplings audience, boys ready to fight, not cowards afraid of war.

To accomplish his purpose, Kipling glorifies high moralities. He assimilates the intensities of a

battle of moralities with a real fight, displaying just how pivotal and intense it is. Kipling also

uses personification at the end of his third stanza, And so hold on when there is nothing in you

except the Will which says to them: Hold on! (23-24). Kipling emphasizes that perseverance

and self-discipline while being a very noble quality, are not easy to practice. Here the Will is

personified as being almost one with our selves. According to Kipling, you must be the one

telling yourself to hold on when every part of you says, given in.

One convention that is not rigid in poetry but also not uncommon is the run-on sentence.

Because poetry as opposed to prose is exempt from many grammatical conventions, poets are

often given a lot more freedom in conveying importance. While this would represent a major

taboo in prose, Kipling optimizes his chosen genre by composing a thirty-two-line piece of work

in one sentence to better emphasized the last line of the poem. After thirty lines of conditional

statements, Kipling finally resolves the thought and therefore the poem with the lines, Yours is

the Earth and everything thats in it, And -which is more- youll be a Man, my Son! (31-32). It

is not a mere coincidence that the whole poem points to this last line. As soon as this is read, the

reader immediately identifies the topic of the poem to be initiation, the audience to be boys in

this process, and the purpose to call these boys through this rite of passage.

While this technique of using one run-on sentence does place a lot of emphasis on the last

line and its role to the purpose it is also quite strategic as it clearly engages the audience. From

the beginning the reader must wait to the end of the poem to have the question asked throughout

the whole work answered.

 Russell 3

Another clever poetic convention that Kipling uses is repetition. As the title suggests, the

word if is extremely important in this poem, and the author starts thirteen of the thirty-two

lines with that very word. This technique while again serving the purpose of engaging the reader

also adds to the focus on the last line of the poem, the one that Kipling considers of utmost

importance. Kipling uses all these conditional statements to accentuate how hard it is to achieve

the manhood that he so glorifies.

Kipling also uses a lot of provocative language which is common across the entire genre

of poetry. This is the tool with which he most clearly glorifies self-discipline and high morality

according to his purpose of not taking manhood lightly. Kipling uses many charges like If you

can trust yourself when all men doubt you but make allowance for their doubting too and If

you can dream and not make dreams your master; if you can think and not make thoughts your

aim (3-4, 9-10). This provocative language is so intentionally aimed toward his audience that

every boy in the transition to adulthood will on reading these charges ask himself, Can I trust

myself like that? Can I dream like that? Do I have what it takes? And when his audience has

asked these questions, Kipling has succeeded in his purpose, for then with that seed of thought in

his brain a boy will step up and try out his strength, test and refine his character and arrive at the

manhood that Kipling so glorifies.

In the movie, Dead Poets Society while the topic of discussion is still the initiation of

boys to men, the writers take a different approach by highlighting the search of life and meaning.

In this film, as with many rite of passage movies some of the genre conventions used are

specialized vocabulary, appealing to certain emotions and allusions or quotes.

Mr. Keating, the mentor figure in this piece, emphasizes throughout the whole movie the

importance of making the most of every day. The specialized vocabulary he uses is the Latin
 Russell 4

term Carpe Diem which translates to seize the day. The writers of this movie do this to give the

audience a catch phrase, something to walk away with. At the beginning of his role as teacher to

these boys he tells them Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day, boys. Make your lives

extraordinary! Another charge to the boys, here it is very intentional that the specialized

vocabulary gives the boys a goal, something to seek after.

Another common convention in the rite of passage movie that is used in Dead Poets

Society is historical allusions and quoting old writers. So much of the initiation is based on

tradition and legacy that it is no wonder that to find advice on such a topic they look to the greats

who have gone before. Though Keatings students listen to his voice, they respond so much

better when he quotes Henry David Thoreau saying, Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.

Dont be resigned to that. Break out! and I went to the woods because I wanted to live

deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was

not life; and not, when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived. Keating also quotes Walt

Whitmans O Me! O Life! and O Captain! My Captain! in the same intention of learning

from the great men of history.

In the context of attempting to make your audience feel or act a certain way, the validity

and magnitude of your voice plays a huge role in how deep the message will go. Thus Keating in

charging his boys to seize the day calls on the aid of Thoreau, one who went through the same

transition as any other to suck the marrow out of life, and because of that has a more powerful

and meaningful voice in the lives of the boys.

The rite of passage movie also commonly appeals to the emotion of rebellion. In Dead

Poets Society Neil Perry must decide between the courage of remaining true to himself and the

virtue of being obedient to his father, For the first time in my whole life, I know what I wanna
 Russell 5

do! And for the first time, I'm gonna do it! Whether my father wants me to or not! Carpe diem!

Here, as is common in other rite of passage movies, the writers appeal to the emotion of rebellion

which is often something that boys feel in their initiation process.

While both the genres of poetry and rite of passage movies have a lot to say on the

initiation of boys to men, each of them has a different way of revealing it. Rudyard Kipling in

If uses conventions of personification, provocative language, run-on sentences and repetition

whereas in Dead Poets Society the writers uses genre conventions like specialized vocabulary

provocative language, appealing to certain emotions and historical allusions or quotes. Thus in

the context of their particular audience both writers succeed in accomplishing their respective

purposes.
 Russell 6

Works Cited

Dead Poet's Society. By Peter Weir. Perf. Robbin Williams. Universal Studios, 1989. DVD.

Kipling, Rudyard. If-. A Choice of Kiplings Verse: 1943. (Print)