i'm a little surprised he reacted much worse (outwardly) than some of those boys. i know they supposedly lead a 'harder' life or something like that but there are tough guys in every culture.
He probably was shocked, and didn't go thru the mental preparation that they did...They knew that they had to do it, but he chose to do it---a diff mindset, when you chose to do something, vs a "you are part of this culture"
Plus, he's a twink biologist