Rites of Passage

Rites of Passage was written by William Golding, who is best known for his book "Lord of the Flies". Rites shares many of the same themes as Lord of the Flies - its a story of what happens when a group of people are isolated from societal norms and how they struggle as a group.

The premise of the novel is that Edmund Talbot (interestingly enough, on my recent trip to England, I saw the Talbot estate - they're kind of a big deal) is sailing to Austrialia to begin a job, which has been secured for him by his godfather. His elderly godfather asks that he keeps a journal of the voyage and mail it back to him as it will be of great entertainment to him.

There were several reasons that I liked this book. The first of which is that Golding didn't just write a novel. He actually wrote a journal (Ph, what style of writing is this?). The chapters are misnumbered, Edmund soon realizes that the dates are of no relevance while aboard, and there is a chapter titled "Omega" about halfway through the book, when poor Edmund thinks that he is just about to wrap up his account of the voyage. It sort of reminds me of how my journal looks. The dates are approximate, sometimes when I write, I note the time and location, other times I do not. If I am trying a squeeze into a certain bridesmaid dress on November 9th, I jot down my weight to keep myself motivated. Othertimes things are just sort of random and illogical.

There are a lot of different things that happen in the book, and Edmund soons comes to realize that the social confines that he operates under on a daily basis in the real world, don't mean much while on the ship. He tries to maintain a sense of normalcy and still thinks himself a "true gentleman", however, in light of some incidents between the Captian of the ship and a Parson traveling, Edmund is put to the test. The book gets really interesting about halfway through, as Edmund realizes what really happened to the Parson and is prompted by the other characters to take action.

Like Lord of the Flies, the passengers are left to fend for themselves under social norms that they aren't used to. The characters struggle to maintain a sense of proper society, but at the same time, continously find themselves in challenging situations, all of which is documented by Edmund. The character development is very sneaky - at first I didn't think much of the characters or that they were highly developed, but then as the novel progressed, I realized that the key characters were highly complex individuals with extremely different motivations.

At the end of the novel, Edmund states as a grand conclusion, "With a lack of sleep and too much understanding, I grow a little crazy, I think, like all men at sea who live too close to each other and too close thereby to all that is monstrous under sun and moon"

Moral of the Story: "When going to Austrailia, consider taking a flight"