Mia Winchell is a 13 year old girl who lives in the countryside down South with her family and her cat, Mango. Mia has a special secret that she has been hiding for 13 years. This secret keeps her apart from her classmates, her friends (including her best friend), and even her family. The book opens during the summer between 7th and 8th grade, and the story unfolds over the next few months. As she begins her final year of middle school, Mia decides that she no longer wants to keep this important detail about herself private. She decides to tell her family and friends this unusual fact about herself - that sounds, numbers, and words have color for her. Her courageous journey towards sharing this private information, as well as the responses and reactions of those around her, comprise the rest of the story.…
Dan McAdams (1995) believed there were imperative levels in, what do we know when knowing a person. Levels one and two helped us to figure out Melanie was a small-town girl who left and lost life relationships to only return and win them back. Level one (McAdams, 1995) expresses which traits Melanie is high and low in, her strengths and weaknesses. It is vital to attain the answers to the big five; also to not stop there but carry on to level two (McAdams, 1995). The second level shows us why Melanie acted that way and what impacted her life. She became selfish and a little white liar after her unfortunate high school experience. As McAdams (1995) wrote, “Good description is necessary for good…
Mock attempted thrive in her teen years without guidance from her parents, but, with the support of friends she blossomed into a stronger, woman ready to take the world by storm. Mock’s quest for an identity that is her own, about her gender followed her and really started to…
As we live our lives, the things we see, hear, say and do, all have an impact on what we become. We are constantly changing; our experiences and the people we meet shape our identities. In the novel April Raintree by Beatrice Culleton, April’s mother figures all had a significant part in shaping her personal identity. The mother figures in April’s life were her real mother (Mrs. Raintree), Mrs. DeRosier and Mrs. Dion. Mrs. Raintree and Mrs. DeRosier had negative influences upon April’s personal identity causing her to be ashamed of being Metis. On the other hand, Mrs. Dion had a positive impact upon April helping her to realize that her life had a purpose.…
Finding out who you are, through hardships and ease, is the main focus of this book. John Demos wanted to write a story, and in this story the main focus is figuring out how to adapt to your surroundings and the circumstances that you have cannot control to best survive. With this he weaved a tale about a colonial town that was not prepared for what happens to it, and its residents.…
Chris McCandless changed his name "to symbolize the complete severance from his previous. No longer would he answer to Chris McCandless; he was now Alexander Supertramp, master of his own destiny" (Krakauer 23). I believe that McCandless chose Alexander Supertramp because signifies what he hoped to accomplish; to become the best vagabond out there. I believe that he did not achieve in coming the best vagabond because he did not live to tell about his travels. McCandless was free spirited and opposed societal norm. McCandless embraced a new identity so he could escape his current lifestyle, let his spirit run free, and to gain independence which he craved. To assume a new identity means that you are leaving your former life behind. Creating…
In “No Name Woman”, the author Kingston tells of one of her families most hidden secrets. She never knew she had an aunt until her mother told her after several years. Her aunt, had gotten pregnant at a young age and committed suicide because her family disowned her and she felt unloved. The author’s aunt let her mistakes she made in life identify who she was.…
Joy Harjo has always been conscious of her gift by stating, “I was entrusted with carrying voices, songs, and stories to grow and release into the world, to be of assistance and inspiration. These were my responsibility” (Harjo 20). In her memoir Crazy Brave, Joy Harjo uses vivid memories, poetry, and dreams to portray her struggles and growth into the strong successful woman she is today. The book starts in her early childhood when she discovers her connection to music and the spiritual world. The sections “East “ and “North” of her memoir contain crucial moments that have molded Joy’s life while on a mission to find her sense of identity. Joy seems to struggle with her identity in much of the first two sections; these struggles with identity come from her gender, race, and family life. While her struggles make a significant impact on the person she is today, the way in which she overcame these struggles is what molds her character and view on life. Joy Harjo found refuge during adolescence in books, music, and poetry, which eventually saved her life. Pivotal moments in Harjo’s life are depicted in the sections “East” and “North” in Crazy Brave, that have impacted her developing sense of identity and her growing desire for independence.…
The struggle to find one's identity is a universal theme that is especially prevalent in Chaim Potok's novel, My Name Is Asher Lev. As an Orthodox Jew, Asher's gift for art is looked upon very unfavorably. Despite the disapproval of his community and father and the pain his art causes those around him, he pursues his passion and must find a way to reconcile the conflict between his religious identity and his individual identity.…
A. Jeannette Walls, in her memoir The Glass Castle, demonstrates Erikson’s eight stages of development. Through the carefully recounted stories of her childhood and adolescence, we are able to trace her development from one stage to the next. While Walls struggles through some of the early developmental stages, she inevitably succeeds and has positive outcomes through adulthood. The memoir itself is not only the proof that she is successful and productive in middle adulthood, but the memoir may also have been part of her healing process. Writing is often a release and in writing her memoir and remembering her history, she may have been able to come to terms with her sad past. The memoir embodies both the proof that she has successfully graduated through Erickson’s stages of development while also being the reason that she is able to do so.…
The first two or three decades of a person’s life is often considered as the most crucial stage in the process of growth and development. Not only do these years see the physical transformation of an infant into a fully grown individual but are also the time when character, beliefs, and principles are developed – a stage known as coming of age. Ideally, the place a person lives along with the people and conditions surrounding him should be nourishing and fostering in able for him to achieve optimal development. Yet in reality, not all people are born and raised in an ideal environment. In many instances, a person may be born into a life of struggle and challenges, in which case coming of age becomes a matter of interaction between the influence of elements in life to a person and the same person’s response to such elements. In Anne Moody’s memoir, Coming of Age in Mississippi, published in 1968, the reader sees the author’s remarkable coming of age. In a way, it can be said that the elements in Anne’s life has caused her to witness conflict between discrimination and inequality. Major elements such as characters, setting, and conflict contribute to the plot that traces her development from a young girl to a highly principled woman.…
An exterior factor which may affect ones present identity is ones past experiences. This concept is explored in Tim Winton’s “Aquifer”, as it follows an adult on a tumultuous journey which leads him to make personal discoveries. “Aquifer” is a clever portrait of growing up and the transition from “Innocence” to…
The short story "Sky theatre", written by the contemporary African-American artist and author, Deborah Willis, illustrates the changing inside an adolescent girl [Caitlin]. By narrating the experience happened in the life of Caitlin with a first person point of view, the author shows us that the affairs of the world are inconstant and nothing good can be possessed eternally.…
In the book, “a complicated kindness”, written by Miriam Toews, the main character, Nomi Nickel, fights through many obstacles in her life and learns what reality is. Her characteristics and identities are built in her by the places she lives. The struggling in living without her mother and older sister has made her doing so much than what she would. The small town and her religion have a huge impact in her, where she hates the place but she learns to love it. Her dream of being free has more inspiration in her which makes her wanting to go to the outside world. After learning so much as she has to, she becomes a responsible, kind and strong young adult.…
The search for one’s identity is as poignant for the fictional character Janie as it was for former slave Frederick Douglass. Douglass used education to form an independent identity, which would separate him from the white slave masters. In contrast, Janie attempts to construct a dependent identity through marriage to each of her three husbands. With the death of her final husband Tea Cake, she plants the seeds he left behind, symbolically proving that she has grown as the seeds will grow and she is now a woman with her own identity.…