In the short story, “Initiation” by Sylvia Plath, Millicent and Liane Morris, two pledges going through initiation to the high school sorority, were discussing what it would be like when they were finally in the sorority. After Liane explains that she knows what it will be like because her sister belonged, Millicent realizes “...it’s just a sort of exclusive social group…”
“I guess so… though that’s a funny way of putting it. But it sure gives a girl prestige* value. My sister started going steady with the captain of the football team after she got in. Not bad, I say.”
*prestige- relating to status or power to impress
After carefully reading Liane’s response regarding her feelings of joining the sorority, what does she believe belonging will do for her? How does Liane value herself as a sorority sister as opposed to before she was invited? Pay specific attention to what she thinks being in the sorority will do for a girl. Do you believe Liane’s views on the perks of sorority are healthy or is she putting too much value on belonging? Explain in detail in no less than 200 words.
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ReplyDelete"I guess so...though that's a funny way to put it. But it sure gives a girl prestige value. My sister started going steady with the captain of the football team after she got in. Not bad, I say." said Liane. Based on what Liane said, she believes that joining the sorority will help her make lots of friends, gain popularity, and receive attention. Liane values herself as someone who can make friends by treating others rudely and boss them around. I believe that she is putting too much value on belonging. She concludes that just because someone, like her sister, joins the sorority, they get popular. In reality, all she has to do was be herself, talk to others, and respect them. For example, Millicent was told by Bev to go and ask what everyone had for breakfast on the bus. Millicent asked nicely and respected everyone she went to. She realized that you didn't have to belong in a club to make friends. In conclusion, I believe that Liane is putting too much value on her belongings because she believes that joining the sorority will help her make more friends, when really, all she have to do was be herself, talk to others, and respect them.
ReplyDeleteI think that was a good reply, but i think you needed a couple more examples to back your reply with.
DeleteThis is a great reply and I agree with you
DeleteThroughout “Initiation” we can see that Liane wanted to join just for popularity. The quote, “I guess so… though that’s a funny way of putting it. But it such gives a girl prestige value. My sister started going steady with the captain of the football team after she got in. Not bad, I say.” just proves how Liane feels. I think Liane feels like the sorority will give her superiority over others in the school. She values herself as a sorority sister now as someone who is free to do whatever they want. Now that she's apart of the group she thinks she has the right to boss around others that are below her. Before, she was invited she might have viewed herself as just being a student in high school. She didn't think much of herself before she joined the sorority. Liane is putting too much value on being accepted into this “social group”. Although it will boost her confidence and probably lead her on the same path as her sister, she is thinking too much of it. It is only high school and her popularity won’t matter after she graduates. Liane is making it seem like joining the sorority will benefit your entire life. In the end it will just make you feel like you need to be mean to people to get friends.
ReplyDeleteI think that was a really good reply and I agree with everything you said. My suggestion is to give an example from the book.
DeleteI think this is a great reply and that maybe you should should just add onto your thoughts a little more.
DeleteLiane stated ,"... it sure gives a girl prestige value. My sister started going steady with the captain of the football team after she got in. Not bad I'd say." When Liane states this you can easily tell why she wants in on the group. All Liane wants is to have more prestige and to follow in her sisters foot steps. She wants more prestige when to make friends all she really has to do is respect everyone. Also, she wants to follow in her sisters foot steps. Almost like Milicent, who was following her sister, Bev's, footsteps. Liane could just do exactly what Milicent is doing and change her mind. She could make friends how Milicent did by being curious in what everyone would say. Milicent made friends by just going through initiation. Maybe Liane could do the same and get exactly what she she wanted instead of joining this glorified social group. It's better to meet new people in the world and to learn new stuff then it is to just talk to the same people just to be more popular. Also, all that this "high school sorority" really did was make you more selfish and wanting. Liane should just be respectful to others in order to make new friends.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your response. You have good examples to back up your response.
DeleteWhile I was reading "Initiation" you can see that Liane wants to follow her sisters footsteps and become popular. The quote, "I guess so... though that's a funny way of putting it. But it gives a girl prestige value. My sister started going steady with the captain of the football team after she got in. Not bad, I say." As you can see she wants to join for attention and popularity. She saw what happened to her sister and she believes that if she joins the sorority she will be one of the girls in school everybody talks about. Now that she is apart of the sorority she thinks that she can boss anybody whenever she wants being they aren't upper class like her. Liane values herself as one of the sorority sisters who can tell others what to do and exactly how they want it. She values herself much more than she really should. There was a part in the book where Millicent was told not asked by Bev to go up and down the bus and ask what they had for breakfast. Millicent did so and she asked everybody so politely and they had an answer with so much respect. It made Millicent realize that you don't have to be in a club to make friends. Before Liane was invited she might of viewed herself of just an average teenage girl that was in high school. In the end just know that you don't have to boss anybody around to make friends. You have to put yourself out there and just start a nice conversation with others and you will eventually get to know the other person. Just be you and treat others with love and respect.
ReplyDeleteI think you did very good job with your blog! I agree with you.
DeleteThroughout the story "initiation" and after reading Liane's response to her feelings on joining the sorority I can come to the conclusion that Liane thinks that joining the sorority will help her in many ways. Liane values herself much more as a sorority sister than before she was invited to the sorority. She finds that now that she is in the sorority she has many more friends and is going to go further in life. When in reality these friends are not good ones and are rude. As well as the fact that she will go no further than anyone else not in the sorority. She thinks that being in the sorority will give her a higher power to impress. Also she thinks this will get her a popular boyfriend just because her sister started dating the captain of the football team when she joined the sorority. I for one do not believe Lianes view on the perks of being in the sorority. They're silly things that shouldn't matter. She is putting way to much value on it when it is not that big of a thing. If anything i find being in a sorority is more of a downgrade than a good and better way of living. Who would want to leave their good friends for terrible ones? I sure wouldn't want to! A sorority is just a social group nothing special. So don't just do something cause others are ,just be you and you will be perfectly fine and have a good life.
ReplyDeleteI like your reasonings a lot and how you back up your reasonings with examples from the book and from your own opinions.
DeleteIn the short story "Initiation" by Sylvia Plath, Millicent and Liane Morris, two pledges going through initiation to the high school sorority. Liane explains that she knows what it will be like because her sister belonged to the sorority, "But sure it gives a girl prestige value. My sister started going steady with the captain of the football team after she got in. Not bad, I say." Liane thinks that if she goes into the sorority, she will become more popular and maybe even get a boyfriend. Liane values herself as a sorority sister higher in popularity and that she actually is someone and not a nobody. Before she was involved, I think she felt like she was small and probably only had a few friends. Now she feels that the sorority is going to get her friends instantly and will feel "big". I believe that Liane is putting way too much value on belonging to the sorority because in the sorority you have a "big sister" for a few days in in the beginning they don't want you to talk to anyone but them and only if they ask the beginner to talk. If I was trying to talk to someone going into a sorority and they were ignoring me I would be very mad and probably stop talking to them and then they will lose friends. They sorority I think will make you lose friends and not gain the popularity that Liane thinks she is getting. You shouldn't change who you are because you want to get into a sorority and make yourself look cool, it will make you look like a fool and that's not the real you.
ReplyDeleteGood good good sir
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ReplyDeleteWhile reading the short story "Initiation'', a girl named Liane briefly shares her views on what the benefits of being in this sorority. She says "gives a girl prestiges value. My sister started going steady with the captain of the football team after she got in." But this shows that Liane isn't taking any value of what she is, but what she wants to be. She expects many good things to come her way. Like popularity, everyone to look up at her as some goddess. She hopes to get a good looking boyfriend also. Liane doesn't believe that she was good enough before she was invited into the sorority. Views like these aren't good to believe. You should take pride in who you are. Don't make yourself dumb doing stupid tasks for people who want to embarrass you. She's also giving the sorority more value then it should have. Its just a social group. All they do is have meetings at girls houses and do nothing really. Liane is going to lose the few friends she has after being accepted into the sorority. Just because you aren't in a sorority, doesn't make you any less popular, and being in a sorority doesn't make you any more special. At the end of the day, we are all human.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your response but i think you could have use more direct examples from the book
DeleteIn the story "Initiation" Liane just wants to be in the sorority to take on after her sister and become popular. She wants to fit in and gain attention. Liane values herself like the other girls in the sorority by thinking she's better than everyone else. She thinks that when you get accepted into the sorority your automatically popular. She thinks she can possibly get a good looking boyfriend like her sister got a boyfriend who is the captain of the football team. I think Liane is putting way to much value on belonging because it is just a group. Whether you are in it or not it doesn't make you any different. Liane shouldn't focus on this sorority because she would be way better off. She thinks this will get her more friends when in reality all you have to do I go up to somebody and start a conversation and introduce yourself. Liane wants to value herself by treating people cruelly and that's not how you make friends. Like Millicent finally realizes by asking people what they had for breakfast, that she doesn't need to be in a club or sorority to make friends. She just needs to start a conversation and treat people with respect and Liane can learn from this too.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree!
DeleteI also agree!!! Don't forget to help me with my locker tomorrow if I can't open it okay? Thanks hahaha
DeleteAfter analyzing Liane’s response carefully I’ve learned a few crucial things about who Liane is as a person. She believes being in the sorority will make her a better more important person in not only her high school but in her entire life. It’s gotten to the point in which Liane thinks of her past self before being invited to the sorority as a lesser individual. In fact she believes all non-sorority girls are of the lesser quality including her sister! She says that before joining the sorority her sister was just an average girl, but once she was accepted she began to date the captain of the football team almost as if the two events directly affect each other. This entire state of mind is completely unhealthy for Liane. Everything in her future life is currently, in her brain, relying on her being accepted to the sorority which is ridiculous. In real life whether or not you belonged to a sorority of high school girls that just meet up and hang out at one anothers house means absolutely nothing. Sure if this group held charity events, did things for the community, maybe organized things around school then it would have some purpose. It would mean you had a great sense of commitmentship, community, and organizational skills which are great character traits. Seeing this could be beneficial on job applications and possibly college acceptances. But this is not the case for Liane’s all mighty sorority. They just eat food and gossip during their “meetings”.
ReplyDelete“I guess so… though that’s a funny way of putting it. But it sure gives a girl prestige value. My sister started going steady with the captain of the football team after she got in. Not bad, I say.” says Liane in the short story, “Initiation”. After carefully analyzing Liane's response it seems like the only two reasons that she wants to be in the sorority is to follow her sister's footsteps and to become more popular. Liane thinks of herself as a nobody. She thinks that if she joins the sorority she will become popular and make a lot of friends. Also, Liane thinks she can get a good boyfriend is she joins. Reality is that these things will probably not happen. I believe that Liane is putting way to much value on belonging to the sorority. It is easy to make friends without joining any groups. All you have to do is start a conversation with someone and be yourself. The sorority overall is just a social group. It shouldn't make anybody better than people who aren't in it. I think that the sorority will make you lose friends and not gain friends because the friends you had before the sorority will think you are ditching them because they are not good enough for you. Really Liane is trying to be somebody she is not so that she can be "cool".
ReplyDelete“I guess so though that’s a funny way of putting it. But it sure gives a girl prestige value. My sister started going steady with the captain of the football team after she got in. Not bad, I say.” One of the two pledges for the sorority thinks that being in the group will make her more popular. Just because when her older sister got into the sorority she started dating the football captain. Liane thinks that being in the sorority will make her popular or even get her a boyfriend because it worked for her sister. Before Lanie got invited to the group she did not think she was popular or have prestige. She is not right for thinking that because she is not in a group that she thinks will make her more popular does not mean you were not cool before. it does not matter who you are or what kind of group you are in it only matters if you are okay with where you are.
ReplyDeleteIn " Initiation" she thinks being in soroity will make her popular because when her older sister joined she started dating the captin of the football team. So she thinks that she will be accepted by popular kids and starting dating someone from the football team or anybody popular. Liane thinks of herself before she gets asked to join maybe unpopular but known in the school. She joins the group for her to become popular and she thinks she will got to party's and date football players. In the beginning its seems that her main goal is to be in soroity but towards the end she does not want to be part of soroity anymore because she gets bossed around and she has to do embarrassing things. Like getting a raw egg cracked on their or coming into school with no makeup and cannot talk to any boys also cleaning rooms and asking people on the bus what they have for breakfast. She realize she does not to be popular to have fun and don't have friends that are mean to you.
ReplyDeleteShe thinks belonging to this social group is a very good idea. She values this because she wants to be very popular and want people to know her and recognize her. Liane wants to be noticed. So, she thinks this will help her and her friend a lot with that and boost up there popularity. She thinks that right know she is boring and not popular cause she is not apart of this social group. I do not think her views are healthy whatsoever. You have to be yourself and then people will like you. You do not join a social group just so your " called " cool or popular. I think it is just plain stupid. Liane is pretty much just doing this to fit in and get attention. She wants to be popular like her sister and date someone again like her sister did. So, I understand that she wants to follow her footsteps but her belief in this social club is horrible and I totally disagree with it.
ReplyDeleteIn the story " Initiation " Liane takes joining the sorority too seriously. In my view she is trying just to fit in and be like her sister, who happen to get benefits when she joined.Like most people in high school she tries to hang out the popular crowd. She also brags about being selected by the sorority and acts like she's all that. When in reality, she's just a girl who got selected for a club that she'll be in for the next 2 or 3 years. Alhough the sorority being a big deal in the book, sororities in high school just aren't really a good common thing.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story, “Initiation” by Sylvia Plath, Millicent and Liane Morris, were discussing what it would be like belonging to the sorority. Millicent thinks it is just an exclusive social group, but Liane, on the other hand, feels differently. Liane states, “I guess so… though that’s a funny way of putting it. But it sure gives a girl prestige value. My sister started going steady with the captain of the football team after she got in. Not bad, I say.” Liane feels that being in the sorority will make her more popular and she will get attention from more people. She thinks that because her sister became more popular and gained attention the same will happen to her if she joins the sorority. I think she is putting too much value on being part of the group and the superficial gains she perceives come with belonging to a sorority. She now thinks of herself as someone who is superior to others. She thinks she can rudely boss people around and get whatever she wants because she is better than they are. In the book, after asking people what they ate for breakfast Millicent realizes that she does not need to be part of the group to have friends or feel like she is someone important. Liane needs to realize that she does not need to change who she is or change the group of people she is with to make new friends. She also needs to realize that popularity is not everything and sacrificing your morals and integrity are not worth the attention or popularity.
ReplyDeleteI like and agree with what you said!
DeleteIn the story "initiation" Liane tells Millicent about the sorority.She tells Millicent that her sister went out with the captain of the football team thanks to the sorority, so Liane thinks that if she was in the sorority then she would make more friends just because her sister gained popularity because of it. She over thinks the whole sorority situation. She values it way too much because she thinks it is her only way of becoming popular. The "sisters" in the sorority do not act like any true sister or friend I've ever known. They do not treat you wit respect and do not care for you like a true sister should. She should realize that pretending to be someone your not does not help you make more friends, it actually only helps you lose the friends you already have.
ReplyDeleteIn the story "initiation" Liane explains that to Millicent that her sister had been popular and reconized by being in a sorority which then influenced Millicent to join one. Millicent felt that her sisters popularity would effect the same on her by joining. She never realized the other ways she could have became popular, she only looked into the sorority situation. She didn't realize that you aren't always treated the same as a friend would be, in this story the sorority treated Millicent very poorly. By the end of the story she realizes she didn't need to be in the sorority to be reconized she needed true friends and made the correct choice of not joining after trying so hard to get in.
ReplyDeleteWhen Laine says “ I guess so… though that’s a funny way of putting it. But it sure gives a girl prestige value. My sister started going steady with the captain of the football team after she got in. Not bad, I say.” When Millicent says “...it’s just a sort of exclusive social group…’” You can tell by Laine’s answer that she craves to be popular and acts as such to get to be in the group that she wants to join. Laine wants to be like her sister because it seems like Laine’s sister told Laine how good the club is and how it can boost her “prestige value”. I personally think Laine is relying on the sorority too much. It seems that Laine thinks that if she doesn’t get into the sorority, that she’ll be an outcast, a loser, and won’t have friends like her sister had in high school. Laine also believes that right now she has little popularity and if she becomes a sorority sister she will become so much more popular and with popularity will come happiness for her life. Millicent should help Laine see that it doesn’t matter how popular you are, it doesn’t matter if she gets into the sorority or not, it only matters that she is happy and that she already has friends that support her that she’ll probably lose if she joins the sorority.
ReplyDeleteIn "Initiation" Liane states "but it sure give a girl prestige value". Prestige in their case means to belong. Liane then backs up her statement by saying that her sister started dating the captain of the basketball team as soon as she got in. Liane makes it seem that if your weren't in the sorority you would be "just another girl" and no one would look at you twice. But you belong to the sorority than your apart of something that gives you more value and you're the talk of the school. I also believe both girls are joining partly because they want to follow I'm their brother and sisters footsteps. As a big brother I can attest to this. Most of the things I do my brother and sisters want to do also. So it would make sense that Millicent and Liane want to follow them. Especially if it's something so "prestigious". In conclusion I believe that the sorrority does give you social value, but not prestigious value.
ReplyDeleteIn the story "initiation" we can tell that Liane is doing the initiation for popularity. She also takes it way to seriously. She beleaves the sorority will get her more friends and will but her on the social radar. Liane , when she got invited in, was very happy and felt as she needed to be in a sorority. When before she was invited in she was very nervous if she was going to get invited in or not. I think Liane was valuing the sorority way to much. Liane is almost stressing over doing everything right for sorority to try and become a member and stay a member. I was very happy when Liane finally realized that you don't need to be in a club or an sorority to fit in or be more popular. That was my favorite part of the story and I feel she would do better things in life then be in a sorority.
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