Identity vs Role Confusion: Mary Ann's Experience

Using Erikson’s theory of Identity vs Role Confusion with Mary Ann’s situation, one can see how when she was a teenager she went through the stage of role confusion. According to Erikson (1993) confusion comes from an adolescent 's inability to settle on a future role for themselves; “to keep themselves together mentally the teenager will emerge themselves within a specific group or crowd that is popular amongst their peers” (p. 262). When Mary Ann began to date Kurt during her sophomore year of high school, she went from being part of this mixed group of individuals who were not all white, not all brown, not all male or female, not a bunch of brainiacs, they were an enigma amongst the students at Flatwater High. Kurt was the handsome, buff,

When the results were posted the next day Mary Ann waited full of optimism because she received the most applause out of all the girls who tried out and the most applause gets to be on the team; but the cheerleading team advisor, Miss Simpson, had final say on who joins the team and she was an older, gray haired lady who dresses very modestly. When the list was posted, Mary Ann’s name was not there, when her friends, Guy and Tom, tried to encourage her to try again next year she refused and walked away defeated. This betrayal of the rules triggers Mary Ann’s all or nothing mentality, she views the world as black and white, she assumed that because she got the most applause during and after her routine that she would be guaranteed a spot on the team. Guy and Tom tried to keep her optimism in check before the list was posted explaining that even though she did do a great job that Miss simpson had final say, so it was no guarantee, but Mary Ann quickly shot them down stating “The most applause wins. That’s the rule. It’s like Queen for a Day. And I got the most applause.” Despite not showing any doubts in her self-esteem before now, being rejected from the cheerleading squad gave Mary Ann’s self-esteem a hard blow. According to Marcia (1980) individuals who are listed as Identity Foreclosures are more likely to change their internal views of themselves based off of feedback

According to Kroger (2007) Foreclosures are set in their values and commitments that they learned from their parents and family without any attempts to find a different path (p. 64). Mary Ann has been immersed in her family of males since the age of three. They were farmers in Georgia, and they were farmers in Minnesota. Mary Ann was taught about hard farm labor, poor hygiene, and sex by her father and brothers. Being a little girl with no mother around a pack of men, her father and four older brothers, she only knew the farmer 's life and the ways of men. She’s dreamt about doing other things with her life and pursuing better things than the four walls of that pink and purple mobile home she’s grown up in and continues to live in currently, but because she is so set in her identity she refuses to change. When Guy offered to help Mary Ann move away from Flatwater and the awful job at the potato factory, for a mere moment excitement danced across her eyes but then she pulled herself back in and adamantly refused help, stating she moved around too much as a child and would never move her children, not even once, despite it meaning a possible better life and future for them. Guy then offered to give her money to buy a better home there in Flatwater, again she refuses, even when he offers it as a loan for her to payback. She screams at