The Major Character In Mcewan's Atonement And Identity Crisis
Psychoanalysis is an appealing field for theoretical inquiry, and it is commonly argued that it is instrumental to the literature production and reception as well. In the previous two chapters, we have already given a general background of theories of identity and identity crisis, mainly psychological theories, and its existences in postmodern literature. In this chapter we will focus on how the major character in McEwan’s Atonement experience identity crisis relying on the social psychologist Erik Erikson’s theory of identity crisis. We will select some pertinent passages, and attempt to diagnose the character’s psychological conflicts displayed throughout the implicit and explicit characterization. By observing Briony’s character through Erikson’s perspectives, we will come across two of his eight stages. First, when Briony is at the age of thirteen, when a child enters the adolescent …show more content…
Erikson’s theory of identity crisis, as we have seen in the first chapter, claims that the adolescent’s main task is to assume his/her ego-identity and sense of sameness . Achieving ego identity is a hard and complex task that faces adolescents, but it must be fulfilled (Fleming, 9-11). Atonement is opened with a scene in Tallis’s house on a worm summer day in which the reader makes acquaintance with the Tallis’ family members and their siblings (Sernham, 2009). Readers will notice that the major
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Erikson's Theory Of Attachment
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Identity In Oedipus The King
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211 Words | 1 PagesThe adolescence stage of development is a critical transition period in a child’s life because this is the stage at which the child struggles to discover their identity, as they evolve into adults. Throughout this transition, the child experiences different physical, cognitive, and social changes that cause the child to feel the need to reconsider their identity. Psychologist Eric Erikson theorizes that, “adolescents experiment with different roles while trying to integrate identities from previous stages”. This theory created by Erikson is the fifth ego crisis referred to as “identity vs. role confusion”. Identity vs. role confusion demonstrations the adolescent’s conflict between social role expectations, the need to fit in, and the ability
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898 Words | 4 PagesSocial and emotional learning is an important part of a child’s education. Some would argue that it is slightly more important than the academic learning done by children. Social and emotional learning is what helps children build relationships and connections to help them become established adults in the future. Social learning is made up of the knowledge of skills that you have when interacting in a social setting with someone. For example, knowing what is appropriate behaviour from one setting to the next is social learning.
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2352 Words | 10 PagesPaul- Michel Foucault was a French philosopher also known as a historian of systems of thoughts whose influence extended across a broad array of disciplines especially in the humanities and social sciences and a social critic. He created his own title when he was promoted to professorship at one of the most prestigious colleges in France “College de France” in 1970. He is perhaps best known for his ruminations on power, self identity, epistemology, and the evolution of systems of thought and meaning. He is often described as post-structuralist or post modernist, however Foucault himself rejected such titles, preferring to analyse their significance rather than identifying with them.
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732 Words | 3 PagesHe constructed eight developmental stages depending upon sociological and psychological developmental instruments and methods. He published psychoanalytical theory of eight levels in his book entitled “The eight ages of Man” in 1950, but later on modified and expanded the theory. He has explained the term epigenetic and represented with space and time and focused on personality and behavioral influences from birth to mature nature of an individual. He also focus on the nature and its reflection due to experiences during the eight stages (Erikson, 1950). Erik Erikson's stages of development:
Madness In Wide Sargasso Sea
1870 Words | 8 PagesThe second reading of madness is one more commonly explored in literature as a theme to emphasize the devastating effects of losing one’s identity or past. In Colonialism and Cultural Identity, Hogan writes about how identity is separated into two parts according to Lacan theory: practical identity and reflective identity. Practical identity, Hogan writes, is ordinary, habitual, or confident individual action, but individual action interwoven with other individual actions, including those of others (83). In conjunction with practical identity is reflective identity. Reflective identity is one’s self-image, what one thinks of oneself conceptually and perceptually.
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