An Application Of Identity Theory To The Analysis Of The Formation Of Miranda's Rebellious Character

Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980), the American short fiction writer, describes in the nine Miranda stories the American southern girl Miranda Gay's growing up at the end of the nineteenth century. By adopting Erikson's identity theory, this thesis analyses the development of Miranda's ego from her infancy to her young adulthood and examines the influences of the social context upon the formation of her rebellious character. In her childhood, Miranda's primary caretakers shaped her strong willpower and her basic senses of mistrust and autonomy, and then she received from her family a restrictive discipline of her conduct and an oppressive education about the Old Order of the American South. Later she came to realize that there was a conflict between the family's legendary past and the cruel social reality. The social changes in the American southern society are internalized as psychosocial factors to urge Miranda to experiment with a new rebellious role. Finally, by clearing away much of the confusion about her identity in her young adulthood, she grew up a rebel not only against her family and the Old Order but against any restrictive power in the world.