A Character Analysis Of Lily, By Sue Monk Kidd

In order to analyze the character of Lily, Erick Erikson’s theories of psychosocial development can be applied. In the book, as Sue Monk Kidd describes, Lily is in Stage five of Erikson’s theory: Identity vs. Identity. In this stage, adolescents like Lily are trying to explore themselves and develop their “sense of personal identity as part of their social group.” They often try out roles that they think they might take onto in future and tries to combine these into understanding themselves. Sometimes, adolescents who are experiencing difficulty connecting their roles with their identity will feel confused about who they are and “what they want to do in life.” Lily slowly approaches the sixth stage of Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of development at the end of the book where she bonds with Zach. In the sixth stage, or Intimacy vs. Isolation “young adults [like Lily] find an intimate life companion” or isolate themselves from the society (Lesser & Pope, 2007, pp. 56). And, like the 2009 Youtube Video, titled “Erik Erikson’s Stages of development”, showed- self-identity will eventually occur at this sixth stage also.

“Recent studies show that neural insulation isn't complete until the mid-20s.” This also may explain why teenagers, like Lily, are often so “self-centered.” If seen from T. Ray’s perspective- he might think that his daughter is just “rude [and] selfish” and does not care about him (which is also true as she did not get any love and affection from him;) but, that’s not the case- it is the fault of “the developmental stage they're at. They aren't yet at that place where they're thinking about — or capable, necessarily, of thinking about the effects of their behavior on other people. That requires insight. And insight requires…a fully connected frontal lobe” (Knox,