Importance of Rituals

Rituals, here as in the non-fictionalized "real" world, represent transitions, formalized transformations that have both personal and cultural significance. In general and here, rituals are designed to represent ways in which people become "more" - more human, more adult, more mature. What is interesting here is that Perina tries, in a couple of circumstances, to obtain the result of the ritual without the meaning. The most vivid example of this is his echoing of the coming-of-age ritual of the male Ivu'ivuans in his treatment of his recalcitrant male children. But while the value and meaning of the ritual on the island is inbred into the members of the community who participate in it, Perina and those whom he "initiates" are separate from that inbred meaning, and as a result, the "ritual" ends up being more destructive than affirming.