Identity and Belonging - Change Can Be Easy or Hard - Reference to Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

I have never thought so much about my future, until hitting eighteen in year twelve. The stress of attending uni, studying, securing a job and the big one- getting married! Marriage, I’m sure, has been something every teenage girl looks forward to. As for me, I have never been so skeptical of such an exciting life event.

First, the forms of aging and life course structures depend on the nature of the society in which individuals participate. Second, while social interaction is seen as having the greatest formative influence in the early part of life, such interaction retains crucial importance throughout the life course. Third, that social forces exert regular influences on individuals of all ages at any given point in time” (Theories of Aging. (n.d.)). The movie portrays aging being more about living the rest of life rather than dyeing in them.

It turns out that the whole journey of aging is something designed to lead us from thinking of ourselves as egos to knowing ourselves as souls. We're given opportunity after opportunity to practice letting go and to shift our perspective from ego to soul-view.

The adolescent years are the hardest years lived by everyone. Hormones are raging out of control and thoughts of self doubt are present on your mind at every second. You spend majority of your time enclosed a facility with other teenagers all experiencing the same discomfort. That’s right: high school. HIgh school for me was the final stage in metamorphosis to adulthood. Beginning my my high school career in a brand new school with no familiar faces or friends was a first. For the first time, I was alone. I spent lunches and alone and had no one to work with. At first, it was all so terrifying, borderline embarrassing! But later, despite being by myself, I stopped feeling alone. My focus later stopped circulating around the fact that I was

Young people don’t maintain the same personality, feelings and views throughout their life. At some point in their life, which very often starts during adolescence, they start looking for their true identity. The transition into becoming a more mature person may be very exciting and very uncertain at the same time. It is a process that involves many changes shaped by the family, friends, environment, community and culture. Young people become more independent, dream of living their life the way they always wanted to, they explore the world, look for new possibilities. At the same time they still ponder their personal identity, are vulnerable and easily influenced by others. They take on new responsibilities, face new challenges and make mistakes.

Adolescence is a time of stressful transition for teenagers. They are straddling the fence between childhood and adulthood. Changes in their bodies, brains, thinking, values, friends, responsibilities and expectations cause events that are usually a time fraught with turbulence, for both the teen and their parents. This is a normal part of human development, and must be endured in order to come out the other side, hopefully well-adjusted, happy, healthy, and

Adolescents all have their own ways of transitioning into adults. In one way or another, we all lose our childhood innocence, whether we like it or not. Many people wonder what this stage in life may be called. The “coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The certain age at which this transition takes place changes in society, as does the nature of the change.”

The transition from life in high school can be problematic for the majority of students.

Now, I face the complexities of life with an empirical approach and a stronger mindset. My new perceptions about life have shaped the way I interact with my friends and coalesce within my society. It is not age, but my experiences that have molded my newfound maturity, and this stream of consciousness has led me to a new ocean of

As you mature the opinions and views of others are less likely to have any impact on the shaping of your identity. I believe this is because as you mature you have developed not only physically but emotionally and mentally as well, and as a result of this you are more comfortable in the person you are. As spoken about in Artificial Maturity by Tom Elmore, a mature person is unshaken by compliments or criticism, they can receive either without letting it ruin or sway them into a misleading view of themselves, they are confident in their identity. The perception another may have on a mature person rarely interferes with or changes how they see themselves.

Adolescence is the transitional period in a persons life time that links childhood and adulthood. The factors that influence development during adolescence include genetic/biological and environmental/social. There are many developmental issues that take place during the transition from an adolescent to a young adult. The issues of emerging adulthood(18-25) are characterized by new experiences, experimentation, exploration as well as new developmental tasks.

Adolescence is defined as “the period of transition between childhood and adulthood that involves biological, cognitive, and socioemotional changes” (Santrock, 2012, p. 16). This time period can be very stressful in itself with all the changes that are going on physically, socially and emotionally. Not only is an individual experiencing physical changes as they enter puberty but his or her social roles are also changing and that can be difficult to adjust to. It can be hard enough for a person to discover who he or she is and to become their own person during this time of transition, but that is made even more difficult when the individual’s home life is thrown into chaos and he or she experiences the turmoil of divorce. Experiencing a parental divorce or separation during adolescence can have long-term effects not only on the teenager’s

Adolescence is the distinct transitional stage between childhood and adulthood in human development, extending primarily over the teenage years and terminating legally when the age of majority is reached (Rathus, 2014). However in some instances, this biological, cognitive, social and emotional maturity may not be reached until a later stage and may be dictated by gender. Adolescence is characterised by rapidly changing and unpredictable behaviour (Freud, as cited in Rathus 2014), heightened and unstable emotions (Hall, as cited in Rathus 2014), disturbances in identity, the gradual development of one’s moral reasoning (Kohlberg, as cited in Rathus, 2014) and the gradual establishment of one’s independence. Several of these changes may occur at differing phases in adolescent growth. This development is categorized into three separate stages; early adolescence, middle adolescence, and late adolescence. Early Adolescence, commencing from the ages of eleven or twelve until the age of fourteen, comprises of several features such as rapid biological development and maturity, heightened stress levels and limited coping capabilities. On the other hand, middle adolescence, from the approximate age of fourteen to sixteen, involves the gradual cease of biological change, an increase in coping strategies and declined stress levels. Furthermore, late adolescence, commencing from the age of sixteen until the age of eighteen or nineteen, encompasses physical maturity, whereby the

According to Harre and Lamp (1983), adolescents begin to adapt themselves more complex with family, peers and teachers, through activities daily and social life according to his mood.

Through the development of characterisation, Lawler’s text acts as a mirror for an emerging society. Whilst the play encompasses many significant themes relevant to an Australian 1950’s society, the disillusionment of growing old is a concept which is addressed through characters Roo and Olive, who evidently find their discoveries both confronting and provocative. Lawler demonstrates reluctance to grow old through Roo, Olive’s love interest who has been consistently travelling to Melbourne for the lay-off season every 5 months with his friend, Barney. Roo a dominant, masculine cane cutter who after seventeen years is reluctant to address that he has aged significantly, is adamant to believe that he still possesses the same strength and endurance that he once did. It appears that he is blinded by the excitement of the lay-off season to accept that seventeen years later, he is not the same person that he once was. Roo’s disillusion is notable in Act 3 Scene 1 when he demonstrates a defensive tone when responding “Nobody tells me I’m old. I’m as good as a man now than I ever was”, when confronted by Emma. Through Roo’s distinctive voice, Roo’s reluctance to accept that he has aged is significant in understanding Roo’s response to his unwanted discovery.