ABSTRACT
F. Jasmine (alias Frankie) Addams’ ruminations cited above address a question adolescents and social scientists alike have pondered over preceding decades: when and how does one develop a sense of ‘I’? Although the foundations of ‘I’ are formed in infancy through the interactions of care-takers and child, adolescence does seem to be a time, at least in contemporary, technologically advanced western cultures, when one is confronted with the task of self-definition. ‘I can’t ever be anything else but me’ begins Frankie. However, trying to find who ‘me’ is becomes Frankie’s task in Carson McCullers’ (1946) novel, Member of the Wedding. The process of selfdefinition is something which scholars have attempted to understand from a variety of perspectives – historical, socio-cultural, and developmental. And while Frankie herself is not concerned with all of these issues, she eloquently gives voice to some of the forces that help shape her ‘I’, her sense of identity, her self-definition.
