This is a study of the group of boy transients who came to the State Relief Administration office in San Francisco between April, 1936 and June, 1937 and requested that they be returned to their homes. The boys who did not wish to go home were not interviewed at this office, and no record was kept of those referred to other agencies.

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. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.