Tramping: alternatives to traditional American rites of passage

In America today, adolescent boys do not have a structured, ritualized or guided passage
From boyhood into manhood. Many young men feel unsure of their manhood even at
an age that signifies the transition. This causes young males to need a self--‐created rite of
passage. Tramping, the act of travelling by train, hitchhiking or foot, is one way in which
young males can independently achieve manhood. This is a literary account of the lives
of Jack Kerouac, Chris McCandless, and Zebu Recchia. Their personal stories allow a detailed view of the advantages and disadvantages found in a self--‐created rite of passage. While two of the accounts are successful, in Chris McCandless’s case the rite ends in a transition to death.Tramping as a rite of passage to adulthood seems effective but the danger in self--‐ creation appears to be the lack of guidance that comes in unstructured rites of passage.