Topic Proposal

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My research Question for this upcoming paper is going to be: How can Young Adult literature help adolescents find their true identity within a society that wants them to conform to normality?

Focus Questions:

1. Does society strip identity away from adolescents?
2. Can being a different ethnicity cause identity loss?
3. Could having a bad home life cause adolescents to hide who they really are?
4. Do peers of adolescents have a negative or positive impact on who they are as a person?
5. Is there a constant pressure of trying to fit in no matter the circumstances during this stage of life?
6. Is being different in a normal world deemed unacceptable?
7. Through these novels and resources can adolescents finally see its okay to express yourself even if they go against the rules of society?

I chose to explore this topic because I believe this is a huge issue for young adolescents throughout the world today. It seems that young adolescents from all generations struggle to find their true identity during this stage of life because they want to be accepted by society so bad. They will give up their dreams, beliefs, and morals to make sure they fit in only for the worlds approval. When in reality all they need to do is to stay true to themselves even if that means they need to step out of the realm of normality. The two novels I will be using for the research paper is Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson and The Absolute True Dairy of an Indian by Sherman Alexie; because they both display instances where the characters go against society even if that means they have to sacrifice other things in life. I plan to use other scholarly sources on the USC Upstate data base that explains why adolescents struggle so much with their identity during this time in their lives. An argument that could be used for my research topic is adolescents should be able to express themselves freely without having society telling them otherwise. Some challenges that might arise while writing this paper is finding the scholarly articles to help me better understand why adolescents struggle with their identity. 

Comments

  1. NoahGoodwinNovember 11, 2019 at 6:07 PM

    Carter, I love that you decided to research identity formation as a whole. There are plenty of factors that contribute to identity formation and your supporting questions seem to give you a good basis to reach all ends. My word of advice is to carefully consider your usage of the word "normal". What could be normal on society's terms can be entirely different for an adolescent who is yet to fully grasp the concept of normality.

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  2. Kiara McVayNovember 11, 2019 at 9:01 PM

    Carter , we have the same research question so I find your entry very interesting. I agree with your argument of people being able to be themselves without judgment and I too want to add in my research presentation why adolescents struggle with their identities. Of course like we always say, I believe it comes from social media but I would be interested to get more information of different ways they could be effected.

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