A very important theme for many American authors, alienation and initiation recreates an experience that is common to many Americans. From the first arrival to this continent, every immigrant has shared alienation and initiation.

Alienation is a feeling of not belonging. This feeling can be physical, mental, religious, spiritual, psychological, political, social, or economic. At one time or another, each one of us has experienced alienation in one form or another whether in a school, among family members, in religion, in politics, and in society. The most common form of alienation is the physical and cultural kind experiencing "foreignness" or "culture shock." This is also the kind of alienation that is most easily understood; however, when one feels alienated in one's own home, society, religion, or culture, it is more difficult to rationalize or understand that feeling of not belonging.

As used in literature, this theme of alienation assumes a familiar process. Its various stages or steps are easily identified:

1. Alienation - the feeling of not belonging - caused by: a. a person, who does something that creates the feeling of not belonging - examples: conscientious objection to war, disobedience (like Thoreau's refusal to pay the poll-tax), or breaking the law; b. society forces a person to do something against one's wishes: drafted for war; not allowed to wear a beard at a job; job discriminations because of alternate lifestyles, etc.; c. a combination of the above. Note: Once a person is alienated, he/she may remain alienated or do something about it, that is initiate a course of action.

2. Initiation - a examination of oneself and to take steps to change the alienated situation.

3. Journey - generally this change is symbolized, in literature, by a physical journey or movement from one place to another - it could mean moving out of home, changing majors or campuses, leaving or joining church, etc.

4. Suffering - during the journey or movement there is some kind of suffering - physical, mental, psychological, etc. This suffering is important to "cleanse" the past; it also suggests that change is not easy, it has its toll.

5. Reconciliation - after a painful journey (self-examination) there comes a reconciliation or removal of the feeling of not belonging. It takes two forms: a. a return to the former place- classic example of the return of the biblical prodigal son, or b a discovery of a new place or situation that gives the initiate a sense of belonging - a divorce and remarriage, for example.

6. Communication - this is an optional step, because not all initiates wish to talk about or share their experiences; however, many do, like Rip Van Winkle in Washington Irving's famous short story.

This secular theme has its parallels in religious experiences, most commonly seen in the so-called "born-again" Christians, and in spiritual experiences, as in mysticism.

| Top | Selected Bibliography - Alienation & Initiation

Antell, Judith A. "Momaday, Welch, and Silko: Expressing the Feminine Principle through Male Alienation." American Indian Quarterly 12.3 (Sumr 1988): 213-220.

Bakerman, Jane S. "Failures of Love: Female Initiation in the Novels of Toni Morrison." American Literature 52.4 (Jan 1981): 541-63.

Coggeshall, John M. "Champion of the Poor: The Outlaw as a Formalized Expression of Peasant Alienation." Southern Folklore Quarterly 44 (1980): 23-58.

Davis, Sara I. "Self in the Marketplace, or A for Alienation." South Atlantic Review 54.2 (May 1989): 75-92.

Dolis, John. "Hawthorne's Morphology of Alienation: The Psychosomatic Phenomenon." American Imago 41.1 (Sprg 1984): 47-62.

Egri, Peter. "'Belonging' Lost: Alienation and Dramatic Form in Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape." Critical Essays on Eugene O'Neill. Ed. James J. Martine. Boston: Hall, 1984. 77-111.

Emerick, Ronald. "Wise Blood: O'Connor's Romance of Alienation." Literature and Belief 12 (1992): 27-38.

Engel, Leonard W. "Alienation and Identity: Richard Wright's Outsider in 'The Man Who Lived Underground.'" West Virginia University Philological Papers 32 (1986-87): 72-78.

Enniss, Stephen. "Alienation and Affirmation: The Divided Self in Sherwood Anderson's Poor White." South Atlantic Review 55.2 (May 1990): 85-99.

Gilbert, Sandra M. "'Now in a Moment I Know What I Am For': Rituals of Initiation in Whitman and Dickinson. " Walt Whitman of Mickle Street. Ed. Geoffrey M. Sill. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1994. 168-78.

Hovet, Grace A. "Initiation Stories: Narrative Structure and Planning." Mosaic 23.2 (Sprg 1990): 17-27.

Jeffords, Susan. "'The Battle of the Big Mamas': Feminism and the Alienation of Women." Journal of American Culture 10.3 (Fall 1987): 73-84.

Plesur, Milton. ed. Intellectual alienation in the 1920's. Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1970. E169.1 .P897 v.69

Rosenberg, Stanley D. and Bernard J. Bergen. The cold fire: alienation and the myth of culture. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1976. HM291 .R594

Singley, Carol J. "Reaching Lonely Heights: Sarah Orne Jewett, Emily Dickinson, and Female Initiation." Colby Library Quarterly 22.1 (Mar 1986): 75-82.

Wasserman, Loretta. "The Lovely Storm: Sexual Initiation in Two Early Willa Cather Novels." Studies in the Novel 14.4 (Wint 1982): 348-58..

Woods, Terry. "Starless and Black: Alienation in Gay Literature." Lesbian and Gay Writing: An Anthology of Critical Essays. Ed. Mark Lilly. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1990. 129-52.

| Top | Selected Bibliography - The Immigrant Experience

Charr, Easurk E., and Wayne Patterson. The golden mountain: the autobiography of a Korean immigrant, 1895-1960. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1996. E184 .K6 C462

Faderman, Lillian, and Ghia Xiong. I begin my life all over: the Hmong and the American immigrant experience. Boston: Beacon P, 1998. E184 .H55 F33

Feingold, Henry L. Zion in America; the Jewish experience from colonial times to the present. NY: Twayne Publishers 1974. E184 .J5 F377

Ferraro, Thomas J. Ethnic passages: literary immigrants in twentieth-century America. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1993. PS374 .I48 F47

Friedlander, Jonathan. ed. Sojourners and settlers: the Yemeni immigrant experience. Salt Lake City: U of Utah P, 1988. E184 .Y44 S64

Hein, Jeremy. From Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia: a refugee experience in the United States. NY: Twayne Publishers, 1995.

Herrera-Sobek, Maria. Northward bound: the Mexican immigrant experience in ballad and song. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1993. ML3558 .H47

Hoerder, Dirk, and Horst Rossler. eds. Distant magnets: expectations and realities in the immigrant experience, 1840-1930. NY: Holmes & Meier, 1993. JV6450 .D57

Lang, Barbara. The process of immigration in German-American literature from 1850 to 1900: a change in ethnic self-definition. Munchen: W. Fink, 1988. PT3907 .L36

Lim, Shirley, and Amy Ling. eds. Reading the literatures of Asian America. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1992. PS153 .A84 R43

| Top | Lovoll, Odd S. ed. Nordics in America: the future of their past. Northfield, Minn.: Norwegian American Historical Association, 1993. E184 .S18 N58

Mageli, Paul D. The immigrant experience: an annotated bibliography. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Salem P, 1991. E184 .A1 M34x

McKenna, Teresa. Migrant song: politics and process in contemporary Chicano literature. Austin: U of Texas P, 1997. PS153 .M4 M55

Muller, Gilbert H. New strangers in paradise: the immigrant experience and contemporary American fiction. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 1999. PS374 .I48 M85

Santos, Robert L. Stories of California Azorean immigrants: an anthology of personal life sketches. Denair, CA: Alley-Cass Publications, 1998. F870 .A95 S264x

Sensi Isolani, Paola A., and Phylis C. Martinelli. eds. Struggle and success: an anthology of the Italian immigrant experience in California. NY: Center for Migration Studies, 1993. F870 .I8 S77

Simone, Roberta. The immigrant experience in American fiction: an annotated bibliography. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow P, 1995. PS374 .I48 S56x

Skardal, Dorothy B. The divided heart: Scandinavian immigrant experience through literary sources. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1974. E184 .S18 S52

Takaki, Ronald T. ed. From different shores: perspectives on race and ethnicity in America. NY: Oxford UP, 1994. E184 .A1 F745

Zaborowska, Magdalena J. How we found America: reading gender through East-European immigrant narratives. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1995. PS153 .E37 Z33

MLA Style Citation of this Web Page

Reuben, Paul P. "PAL: Appendix E: Alienation and Initiation as a Theme and the Immigrant Experience." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. URL:http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/append/axe.html (provide page date or date of your logon).  

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