Fraternal Rites

In his freshman year, Michael, an 18 year-old at a small liberal arts college decided to join a fraternity. That decision came with the consequence of spending six weeks “pledging,” a process in which active fraternity members constantly tested his willingness to be a part of the group. Michael and his pledge brothers spent long hours undergoing the tasks that the active members had set out for them. He agreed to allow the actives to brand him with the chapter’s emblem, and he spent hours learning and singing the fraternity’s fight songs. At the end of the six weeks his membership came down to a test of fraternity history. Michael was one of two to be told that he had failed the exam, and that he would not be able to join the group. But only moments after being reduced to tears, the actives stripped away the veil of pledging, and admitted that the test had been a fake. His membership secured, Michael drank.