29 pages • 58 minutes read
Sylvia PlathInitiation
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1953A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Simile
Similes are a form of comparison that uses “like” or “as.” Plath uses simile in “Initiation” to illustrate Millicent’s shifting feelings about acceptance into the sorority. Early on, Millicent daydreams about the life she will lead afterward: “[I]t was as if she had been sitting for years in a pavilion outside a dance floor […] wistfully watching the couples [...] laughing in pairs and groups together” (241). This passage shows just how much Millicent has romanticized the feeling of acceptance that she hopes to gain from joining the sorority. By pairing this daydream with the reality of Millicent’s hazing, Plath casts doubt on whether Millicent’s hopes will come to fruition, particularly as Millicent herself begins to have misgivings. Millicent’s reflection that the “gopher” nickname “is degrading, like being given a number” suggests her growing unease with the initiation process (243). She can’t quite articulate her discomfort (hence the need for a simile), but her emotions are clear. When Millicent encounters the man on the bus, the fantastical similes reappear: “[H]e looked something like a gnome or a cheerful leprechaun” (246). Here, however, the simile indicates the value of individuality, marking the moment’s pivotal role in Millicent’s thoughts about the sorority.
Juxtaposition
Writers use juxtaposition by situating two subjects, characters, images, etc. next to each other to enable dramatic contrast. Plath juxtaposes the interactions that Millicent has at school during hazing week and the interactions she has with adults outside of educational hours. In school, Millicent’s interactions are metered by the rules the sorority imposes: She can’t talk to boys, she can’t wear lipstick or curl her hair, and all her conversations revolve around getting through initiation week. By contrast, outside of school, Millicent has numerous fun and unstructured interactions with adults who, as she says, treat her as if she were “really a person of consequence” (246). These interactions and their sharp juxtaposition with the hazing process shape Millicent’s ideas about the nature of Societal Acceptance Versus Individuality. Her school life comes to represent the limitations of acceptance by her peers while the outside world represents the simultaneous freedom and connection she can find by showing “interest[]” in the people around her.
Free Indirect Discourse
Free indirect discourse is a method for depicting characters’ interiority in third-person narratives. Rather than simply reporting what a character is thinking or feeling, free indirect discourse shifts partially into the character’s own voice, often signaled by changes in tone or diction.
Though “Initiation” sometimes explicitly relates Millicent’s thoughts and feelings, it also uses free indirect discourse in passages like this one:
Millicent sat down at her desk in the big study hall. Tomorrow she would come to school, proudly, laughingly, without lipstick, with her brown hair straight and shoulder length, and then everybody would know, even the boys would know, that she was one of the elect. Teachers would smile helplessly, thinking perhaps: So now they’ve picked Millicent Arnold. I never would have guessed it (241).
The shift into Millicent’s voice highlights important elements of her thought process—e.g., the quasi-religious reverence with which she views the sorority’s “elect” and her certainty that everyone must view her as an unlikely sorority candidate. Indeed, the story often uses free indirect discourse to suggest Millicent’s insecurity and therefore the particular allure that sorority membership holds for her.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a way for an author to hint at future information, action, or narrative developments. Plath uses foreshadowing in the beginning of the story to hint that Millicent may not go through with the initiation. Plath starts the story with Millicent in the basement of Betsy Johnson’s house but implies that she is not simply there to accept the sorority’s invitation: “[H]er case would be quite different. She would see to that. She could not exactly say what had decided her revolt, but it definitely had something to do with Tracy and something to do with the heather birds” (240). The word “revolt” foreshadows Millicent’s rejection of the invitation, while the mysterious reference to “heather birds” sets the reader up to expect their appearance. The passage also hints at the story’s exploration of conformity and independence, with Millicent distinguished from—“quite different” than—the other initiates from the start.
Related Titles
By Sylvia Plath
