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.
Liane believes that if she belongs in this sorority she'll be more popular, have a higher reputation. Laine definitely showed that she'd do anything just to get in but before she ever was invited she looked at sorority groups as very high class popular people, which she wanted to be but instead she was kind of an outcast who wanted new friends and wanted to be well know. Laine thinks that it will not only get her popularity but also get her guys. I do believe that Laine is putting to much value on belonging in the group, it isn't healthy for her and she'd only end up changing into something that should've never happened.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with this because it is true that she values the group way too much. Good job Monet!
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ReplyDelete“That’s a funny way of putting it”, the words of someone in denial or blind of a different perspective. Liane’s response shows how she feels about joining the sorority. Liane thought that being a part of the sorority would make her become a much better person, as pointed out but what she states about how her sister graduated two years after joining, and that she dated the captain of the football team. She also believes that being a part of this ‘group’ will make her impressive compared to others who could not make it in. Liane is excited to be a sorority sister more so than before she was invited. I personally think that Liane’s opinion on what the sorority group will do for her is very poor. Liane should not put a value on friendship. She believes that after a week of being ridiculed, harassed, and labored, that she will be the greatest of friends with those who threw her around. Liane should be smarter in realizing that she shouldn’t be judged on what she is a part of, but she should allow people to see who she truly is in order to accept her. Liane’s opinion is hers to keep, whether it should be kept of not. If you asked her about the sorority, she’d just reply, “It’s not bad, I say.”
ReplyDeleteYou write so well and I agree with you about Laine!
DeleteWow this was really good! You got Laine right on point with the whole denial part!
Deletethat is very true on the part that laine is in denial and cant be written much better and is 100% dead on good job
DeleteLiane believes that joining the sorority will help improve her popularity. She believes that being in a popular group in school will make her more popular. For kids, being popular in school is very important, some kids even put their popularity before their grades. They mention in the short story how being in the sorority can help these girls get some of the popular boys to talk to them. Liane did not value herself as much as when she got invited to be in the sorority group and it is pretty obvious. She never said she wanted to be part of it, but secretly she dreamed of it. She wanted to be popular like the other kids in the sorority. She wanted to make new friends and be better known than she was. I think at this point, popularity was her biggest worry. She thinks this sorority will help her get through school with popularity, but she realizes during her initiation that it is not worth going through a bunch of bullying. She also decides to not do the sorority group because if those people really wanted to be like her sisters, they would not make her go through all of the tormenting things that she had to and they would not make her feel like trash. I do not believe Liane's views on the perks of the sorority are healthy. She thinks way too high of it and it could potentially hurt her in the long run. Anyone who feels they should go through that type of stuff to get popular or have friends is wrong. They should change their minds quickly before they run out of real friends who like them for themselves and would never put them through that stuff.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this sorority is just a club based around bullying as well as harassing and that Lianes thoughts about it are unhealthy
DeleteLiane says it gives a girl prestige. She believes that when she gets into the sorority she'll get way more respect and treated better. Now that may be true but is that right? The answer is simply no. Her beliefs come from her sister's past. Just because her sister was popular and treated better and got a boyfriend doesn't mean that she'll get the same treatment. I personally think that she might be treated better but it's honestly not real "friends or "boyfriend" in this book's universe the Sorority sisters are treated better it's a fact. During class I was thinking about life lessons the author might be trying to get across and I think she wanted to put across "Be yourself" not only that but "Don't fall for peer pressure" since Liane is not going to be herself and become a sister just to become popular she won't be able to be herself. She might not be herself ever again and become some sort of robot without any personality what so ever. Second Peer pressure plays a huge part in this story. All these females were pushed into doing this. They were being told it was great. They were given evidence to why it's so good. So in conclusion Liane hated her past self because she didn't have many friends or a boyfriend and believes that this sisterhood will save her. It's all very true. I lost plenty of friends because they wanted to blend into more of a popular group. Now that I think about this author is a genius because not only does she teach about being who you are and peer pressure but she also teaches about finding real friends in life. The initiator were brutal showing little to no respect to the "Gophers" which is a disrespectful name already. So why would you want to be friends with that? Liane is in for a rude awakining
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you James. Good Job.
DeleteAwakening*
DeleteBut otherwise, I completely agree, Liane does not understand what she is getting into, and that it will not affect her greatly.
Laine believes that being in a sorority will make her more popular and have a popular boyfriend as well. Also, she thinks that from being in a sorority she is one of the best in the school. Being popular for some people is more important than anything else in school. They don’t care what their “values” are because they are popular. Laine values herself as a sorority sister more than before she was invited into the sorority because the sorority made her more popular and her sister went steady with the caption of the football team after she was invited. So, Laine is more into getting the popular boy instead of real friendships and friends who actually care about you. She thinks that after a week of being made fun of and going through horrible things makes you become best friends with the older girls. From this, I think that Laine is putting too much value on belonging because she isn’t seeing the cons on the sorority. She is blinded by the popularity she gets from the sorority to realize that these girls aren’t her true friends and don’t care if they see her fall and get hurt. Laine needs to realize that her friends before she got the invitation are the better friends who will actually care about her.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I almost said the same reasoning as you, too!! All Laine cared about was being popular
DeleteLiane believes that being in a sorority will give her prestige and make her popular. That being in this club will give you some sort of extra value and will allow you to date anyone you want and be almost better then everyone else. People treat popularity as something that defines you and they treat it as something that needs to be looked high upon. What Liane doesnt understand is that her point of view of the sorority is tainted by her sister and her past. My opinion on it is that I think Liane is just trying to find a way to just fit in and by joining this sorority she is doing so. She cant seem to process the thought that her and every other girl that has been forced into this sorority have been brainwashed since the beginning. She needs to realize that she herself as a person is just as good and as "valuable" as the rest of the sorority sisters.
ReplyDeleteAll Laine wanted to do was belong to the sorority. She wanted to be popular just like the girls who are in it already. The girls who belonged to this sorority seem to get all the popular boys to talk to them. Laine admirred them and wanted to be just like them. She valued the girls in that group. Maybe even to much. Towards the end of the story Laine realizes that the girls in this sorority are not what she wants to be. They are not the nice honorable people they were always made out to be. So at the end of the story her values change and she realizes that shes happy with what shes doing.
ReplyDeletegood job Haley, i totally agree with you. nice piece of work!(;
Deletea little short could use more detail but i see the point
DeleteLiane believes that if she belongs to the sorority, she will gain "prestige". She believes that it will make her popular and more appealing if she was in the sorority rather than not being in the sorority. Since her sister started dating a popular football player after she joined the sorority, Liane thinks she will have the same result. Liane values herself much higher as a sorority sister than before she was invited. The sorority is an exclusive social "club" that she thinks will make her a more important and powerful person. I believe, people sometimes get caught up in their position in society rather than to stay true to themselves. I do not believe that Liane's views on the perks of sorority are healthy at all. Belonging to this special group just makes her a follower instead of the leader that she thinks that she is becoming. It is not healthy to value yourself based on the opinions and judgments of others. Let alone, to get into this exclusive group, she is treated poorly by the people she wants to become friends with. This doesn't make sense to me. I would rather be my own person, than to follow people who will treat other people like garbage.
ReplyDeletegood response bro. i believe u 100 percent.
DeleteLiane believes that being the sorority will make her popular. She took what she saw happened to her sister to only hope that it will happen to her as well. Because her sister went steady with the captain of the football team, she has high hopes for herself. Since Liane was invited into the sorority she feels more prestige, or more important, than her fellow peers. She now knows that other people are almost below her maybe that shes better than them, too. Liane is putting too much value in belonging to this group. She expects her fellow classmates to look at her with better looks like she's someone who's in charge now.
ReplyDeleteLiane thinks that the sorority will do her good. She thinks if she gets in she can go steady with the captain of the basketball team just like her sister. To me, Liane values the sorority to much and it is not very healthy. She downgrades her self until she gets invited to be apart of the group. She thinks the the sorority is the best thing since lice bread. Liane talks about how the sorority is so good and can do great things for the girls who join but all Millicent gets out of it is a private social group. I agree with Millicent that all it is, is a private social group. Liane thinks that that is a funny way of putting it but she is a little denial about the whole situation. Millicent has it pegged one hundred percent in my book it doesn't do anybody any good it just makes you popular. No one should be liked just for joining a group. People should like you for who you are not who they want you to be. Towards the end of Initiation Millicent realizes the same thing and decides she doesn't want to be in it anymore. In conclusion, I feel that Liane takes the sorority way too seriously, but soon she will learn it isn't all that good.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you one hundred percent Amanda. For it doesn't matter what "rank" you are in a social group, what matters is being your self and letting people accept you for who you are.
DeleteLaine believes joining this sorority will give her value and worth. She sees the world as being popular is the right way to go. She listened and took notes from her sisters experience in the sorority and assumed that's whats suppose to happen. Before the sorority she most likely thought pretty low about her self. This sorority makes girls feel like they have a place. Laines views on the sorority are not healthy. You can tell she's caught of gaurd when Millicent describes the sorority with such little value. She doesn't want to believe differently. She doesn't realize that fitting in is not all that matters. It's not okay to have to feel such a low self value just because you didn't "belong". Laine doesn't realize that it's okay not to belong. Sometimes it's better to stick out. You don't need a social ranking to tell you how much you are worth. It's what's inside that really matters.
ReplyDeleteLiane thinks that joining the sorority will increase her popularity in school. She sees all the other girls in the sorority getting more friends and talking to guys. One of those girls being her sister which she sees dating the Captain of the football team after she joined. She thinks that everyone who joining automatically gets popular. Since she was invited she thinks she's better than everyone. Liane believes she is higher up than her friend that she was friends with before her invitation. even though she was just like them before her invitation. She is putting to much value on belonging. She had friends before that truly liked her. Now she's joining a group that she barley knows just to gain popularity. Its a lot better to be yourself than follow the crowd. Liane shouldn't of got blinded by her sister and all the other girls and should of just stayed with her true friends.
ReplyDeleteI think Laine is brainwashed on the fact that this club gives them prestige. this is showed by when she says her sister started going out with the football captain really shows that she dosen't think for herself and believed everything her sister said about it. By her believing everything her sister said she isnt her own opinion of h.s. and wont enjoy it at much. Laine saying this really makes her blind to the plain truth and just ecause ur in a group dosent mean your better then the rest.
ReplyDeleteLiane believes that being part of a sorority will give her popularity and prestige. She sees the other girls hanging around and talking to the popular boys and thinks that being part of that sorority and being with these “popular” girls will give her the same results. Her sister dated the captain of the football team and believes that she could get the same outcome just by being a part of the group. Before Liane was invited she was just a “normal” girl, and didn’t care about being with anyone but her friends. But since joining the group she’s pushed away her true friends and settled for her sorority sisters. Now she believes that she’s popular and better than others. Liane is putting too much value into being part of this “exclusive club”. She doesn’t realize that you don’t have to be popular for people to like you; you just have to be yourself.
ReplyDeleteJamie, I agree with you 100% Liane is putting too much value into the sorority. This is very well written. Great job.
DeleteShe believes that it will make her more popular than what she already is. She values herself as more important and noticeable. She was an ordinary girl but now with the sorority sisters asking her to join it is as if she was actually born to the other kids. I think Lianes perks of sorority are putting too much value on belonging. I think this because she thinks it is going to make her a better person in life but in reality, it is only making her better in the social world. She only cares about the sorority because everybody in it is popular and has a hot boyfriend. The only way in the story to gain what they like to call prestige is to be in the sorority group with them. She thinks that just for a week of being treated and humiliated she will gain respect from everybody in the school and will be treated nicely by them. Not really. In the real world, you have to earn everything in life and work for it. In the story, you are handed it to you on a silver platter if you are in the sorority. The only reason people want to be in it is that they want to be popular and have it easy.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story “Initiation” Liane believes that belonging to the sorority will make her more popular and make people like her more. Before she was invited she probably didn't think any thought she was popular, so she thought the only way to get noticed was to join the sorority. I think Liane is putting to much value on belonging. Is it really considered being accepted as a friend if you had to go through an initiation to belong to their group. If someone never talked to you before and all of a sudden they want to be best friends with you, its just because you got accepted into the sorority, not because they actually care about you. If you need to go through an initiation just to be friends with some one, their not really your friend, they just needed an extra person in their group to keep the cycle going. So I think Liane is putting way to much value on belonging, if they wouldn't accept her for her, but only for the reason of needing more people in a group, then their not real friends. Real friends wouldn't make you go through an initiation to be friends with them, they'd just say “hey, lets hang out some time”. So yes, Liane is putting to much value on belonging.
ReplyDeleteWhen Laine says "i guess but thats a funny way of looking at it" its showing that she is blinded by the fact of entering into the sorority. She's to blinded and in denial to realize that theres really no point to this. She believes that joining this will bump up her popularity statues. But really all she's doing is getting put down and embarrassed just to make friends. But really aren't friends supposed to respect you and push you up not down? She should really consider that. She thinks that she has some kind of value when she joins this sorority. And before she joined she was lost and had nothing but now she has some kind of value and worth. But really you should make friends yourself and actually experience true friendship which this isn't. They don't care what you do or if your down they'll stab you in the back and not care at all. This view is not healthy for her because she shouldn't feel that joining a club will give her a prestige and value but being herself should be enough for her to make friends. And joining this unimportant and irrelevant club should not be a way to get boys to like you. Boys should like Laine for her and just her not for some club she joined. The main idea of this is just that you shouldn't take a quick and easy way out to getting guys and making friends but actually go out and experience high school like a normal kid.
ReplyDeleteLaine believes belonging to a sorority will make her more popular and gain status. After hearing what Milicent has to say about how its just some "exclusive social group" Laine takes that into consideration but still feels as if it will make her popular. She believes that the only way to become popular is to join the sorority and become one of the sisters in their "exclusive social group". She does change some feelings after hearing what Milicent had to say. Even though Milicent makes a good point, Laine seems to think popularity is a bit more important. Is it really healthy to want something just to gain popularity and be noticed ? I believe she's putting too much value on belonging. She should hangout with her friends & ditch the sorority because all the sorority needs is more people, they don't actually want Laine. If they did anyway then they wouldn't make her go through the horrible week of initiation to be excepted into their sorority. Therefore I don't think Laine should be putting so much value into belonging.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Laine is putting to much value in being in the social group!
DeleteIn "Initiation" Liane believes the sorority will help her gain more friends and get more attention from guys. She thinks her popularity will greatly increase by belonging to the sorority. As a sister, she considers herself above others now. Like she is more important than people that are not in the sorority. "Prestige" as she calls it. She Considers the sorority girls more important and valuable than normal people. The whole thing is just a popularity group. But is this considered right? Having friends shouldn't be based on the people you hang out with. Gaining friends should be based on who you are and what people like about you. NOT about what type of "group" you hang out with. Liane's sister started dating the captain of the football team? But did he date her because of who she was? Or was this purely due to her joining the sorority? This group is very bad. They do anything just to be friends with these " popular people ". When making friends should be you acting yourself, not doing special things to please others. Would you crack an egg over your head if your friend said they wouldn't be friends with you if u didn't? Of course not!. These types of groups are completely wrong.
ReplyDeleteIn the story "initiation," Liane believes that being in the sorority gives a girl prestige. She thinks this and that belonging in the sorority will do her good because Liane will feel more popular and happy with herself. This is because back when her sister joined the sorority, the football captain liked her and Liane thought it was because her sister joined the sorority. Also, Liane puts too much value on joining the sorority. To get into this group of "sisters," they have to bully them and make them do stuff they shouldn't have to, and she respects the sisters and their group so much for no reason. If i were in Liane's position, i would just focus on getting good grades and keep my group of friends small. Instead she wants to be popular in hopes it will do any good for her, but in reality being cool will not get her into college and a job.
ReplyDeleteLaine believed that being part of the sorority would make her more popular. Laine thought that the sorority was the only way for more people to like her. Since her sister was a part of the group, Laine easily believes all of this. She also says it would make her feel more prestigious. This makes it seem like she thinks she will be better than other girls because she's apart of the group. Laine also definitely values herself more as a member than she did before. Laine seems like she puts a lot of thought into fitting in and trying to become a part of the sorority. I think she shouldn't make such a big deal about being apart of the sorority.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, and we posted at almost the same time.
DeleteIn the short story "Initiation" Liane believes that belonging to this sorority will give her prestige. Because of how it turned out for her sister(getting with the football captain), she thinks being a part of this group will give her similar results. Also, her views on the perks of the sorority are very unhealthy. There are better ways to make friends than this, such as finding people in your classes that have common interests. All of the popularity from it will not help her later in life, and therefore should not be her main goal. To me, this sorority seems like a non-violent gang. She is going through humiliating initiation so that she can be a part of it. One of the reasons for joining it is to feel comfort, and be a part of a close group, which is the same concept gangs use for recruitment. I definitely think that Liane is putting too much value into belonging to this sorority. It is better to be different than others, and be yourself, than to be brainwashed and only care about your image being "popular."
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