Rite Of Passage Of The Pregnant Boy

“The Pregnant Boy” begins with a mother giving her son instructions to pick up a special medicine for her, emphasizing that he does not eat the medicine. Though the boy agrees to this rule, his curiosity gets the best of him, and he tries it anyway. At first, nothing happens to the boy, and he wonders why his mother instructed him not to eat it. Soon, however, his knee begins to swell up, and he eventually gives birth out of his knee. He hides his new child, Matinci, in the kraal, and suckles it every time he takes the cattle out. The boy’s mother is suspicious this whole time, but he continues to deny having taken the medicine. This suspicion becomes an ordeal as his mother watches him, noticing he frequently stops at the kraal, and decides to check it out. She finds Matinici and hides her away from the …show more content…
Whereas the other rite of passage stories we have read include a big event that takes the child out of society, this story lacks one. He is still living with his mother while he undergoes these changes. Typically, we find that the child either literally is forced out of society due to it being out of balance, is separated due to death of family, or both. This does not happen in this story, though he does undergo changes of the self. We also do not see a big reincorporation event either. He is reincorporated in that he is now able to take care of his child openly, but he is not literally brought back into society like most of the stories that we have read. This story also features a nurturing male figure. Instead of the central character needing to prove strength and other “masculine” traits, he must show typically “feminine” characteristics in order to care for his child. He suckles the child, and cares for it tremendously. This is not seen in most of the rite of passage stories we have