Running head: THEORY PAPER

Theory Paper:
Life Cycles of Three Books
Stacy A. Ramos
HD 300 Monday 4-7pm
Instructor- Martha Clark

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Theory Paper
The Life Cycles through the Stories
Erik Erickson had once stated, the attention and environment you provide shapes your
childs brain development for life (Americas Angel, 2011). Erickson had observed how people
can learn from the environment in which he or she is raised and the background that can form
their identity, which affects their social, emotional, and cognitive development. In the following
pages, we will look into All Gods Children, Reviving Ophelia, and As We Are Now, and how
their environments and backgrounds can affect their identity, attachment for family and
friendship, and microsystem system in life.
Searching for Identity
In Ericksons fifth stage in Identity vs. Role Confusion, the individual should be able to
identify who they are and how they view themselves in the world. If the individual cannot
identify who they are and accept themselves for who they are in the world, the individual will
have a difficult time to have a sense of belonging and becoming independent. Each of the stories
provide a similar issue where the individual or individuals have in some form a difficult time to
belong in the world they live in, and not accept who they are.
Identity and family pressures. In Fox Butterfields book All Gods Children describes
the aspects of a family called the Bosket family, and a long history line of a troubled life. Many
of the people in the Bosket family were in a cultural and economically distress, often feeling
unaccepted and have a mission on finding out their own identity. Willie Bosket was a good
example in how his sense of identity was taken away. The son of Butch Bosket and the grandson
of Aaron Bosket, Willie Bosket from an early age was told many times he was just as intelligent
as his father (Butterfield, 2008). As Willie became older, and getting into his mother would

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compare his looks. And in Butterfields words, when Willie acted up, his mother would also say,
Boy, you bad, just like your father. You got the devil in you. Youre going to grow up to be no
good (2008, p.141). Willie Bosket does not know who his father is nor does he know who he is
like. Since he has been told many times about his fathers identity, and seem to have similar traits
in many ways. Willie was already convinced himself, even though he does not know his father.
He will end up the same fate. All of his actions and his abilities are a replica of how his family
views him, and now, the world sees of him.
Influence of culture. Just as the adolescent girls in Mary Pipers Reviving Ophelia.
Many of the girls from Pipers cases had similarities when in searching for their self-worth and
identity. As Piper describes, adolescent girls experience conflict between their autonomous
selves and have more femininity, between their human being status and as a career female (Piper,
2008). Also Piper points out,
Girls become female impersonators who fit their whole selves into small, crowded
spaces. Vibrant, confident girls become shy, doubting young women. Girls stop thinking,
Who am I? What do I want? and start thinking, What must I do to please others?
(2005, p.22)
Just as All Gods Children, a lot of these girls are reminded every day, they need to behave, dress;
even act a particular way. It is the culture that these girls are living in that influences how they
view themselves. For most adolescent girls, if they do not eliminate their authentic selves, their
identity will not be entirely accepted in the world (Butterfield, 2008). And the results are far
more worrisome than people may think it is.
Lost identity. Unlike All Gods Children and Reviving Ophelia, which are based on the
younger generation, May Sartons novel, As We are Now, has a view point of an old woman,

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named Caroline Spencer, who is in search for her identity her brother places her in an elderly
center. While settling in the elderly home, Caroline came to realize she needed to find herself,
but again. To move on to the next level of her stage in life. First, determining how she views
herself in the world and outside of the world. She states, I am not interested in the abstract
cogitation any longer. I am interested in me. I am a long way still from the fulfillment, the total
self-understanding that I long for. I am a mystery of myself (Sarton, 1973, p.24). She needs to
find herself to accept who she is and where she is in her life.
The Need for Attachment
By definition attachment is an emotional bond between an infant or toddler and primary
caregiver, a strong bond being vital for the childs normal behavioral and social development.
But also can be a bond between two individuals that need a strong connection behaviorally and
socially.
Need a family. Family is the most important part in life. However, when there is a lack
of a bond with their loved ones. In All Gods Children, for three generations had no father to look
up to, nor a mother who was completely around. One of the generations, Butch Bosket, Willies
father, was very much need of a family. Butch have attempted to create a family by adopting a
young runaway couple, but discovered they were not able to handle his horrific past. He was
already befriended a young Jewish man named Michael Schoenfield. But when Michael was
released from prison, Butch began to write letters to think of Michael and his wife and daughter
as his family. In a letter that Butch had written to Michael and his wife, Family is where the
center of the world is. That has always been a major piece of me that has been missing. But now
I have a family (Butterfield, 2008, p.247). The family he has been searching for were people

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who had understood him the most, and had accepted who he is. And, that is what Butch always
wanted.
Need for guidance. Or in Reviving Ophelia, there are cases when there is a missing
parent and parents that are not available enough for their young adolescent child. Adolescent
children find other alternatives to replace the pain of a broken home. A lot of the time, adolescent
children, especially the girls from the book, either display anger, abandonment of socialization,
depression, resentment, attempt of hurting themselves, and self-conscious thoughts of not being
in the norm compared to their friends. Piper (2005) points out that if adolescent girls do not get
the support they need, children will have no idea where to run to or return to. And it is important
for teenagers to have parents who will talk to them, supervise them, help them to stay organized
and support them when they are down (Piper, 2005). Emotionally and behaviorally, they will be
able to handle the stresses of the changes in their life, if they have the support and
communication from the person who is watching over them.
Need companionship. In Carolines case, she has a different form of attachment issue.
When it comes to seniors, they need the love and care just as much as teens. Moreover, Caroline
is a victim in abandonment from her family. Just as Butch searching for a family, Caroline is
searching for companionship to not feel neglected, but loved. After realizing that her brother and
sister-in-law would never come back, Caroline relies on people who keep their promises to visit
her. As Caroline describes living in a place where there are barely any visitors; in her words,
What I am getting at is that in a place like this where we are deprived of so much already, the
small things delight the senses (Sarton, 1992 , p.66). When pastor Thornhill and his daughter,
come to visit, she becomes excited and fascinated on developing a companionship with people
who care about her. But when a nurse named Rose temporarily works at the elderly center, and

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changed when and becomes infatuated with the female nurse as a form for companionship,
which she desperately needed (Sarton, 1992).
Effects within the System
A place and environment that someone lives can determine how he or she will view
themselves within the world, and outside. Within all of the selected books, there are some form
of systematic effect. In All Gods Children, Butch and Willie had experienced the same single
parent family experience, lived in the same economic environment, and committed similar
crimes. With the combination, the environment that both Willie and Butch had lived in convinced
them both that society had little expectations for success. They began to believe by going against
the system, by killing, robbing, and stealing, they feel it is their right to survive within the
system. Their community and home did not provide them the ability to become more than what
they were capable in doing. To both Butch and Willie, the societys actions are what made them
the way they were. Willie had described in the book, I am only a monster created by the
system (Butterfield, 2008, p. xiii). If there was a moment in their family line that could have
helped them to have a better life, their life would have been different. And the system would not
go against them.
Just like All Gods Children, in Raising Ophelia, American society has an expectation on
how the youth should be. Adolescent children are going through hormonal changes, constant
pressures of look and behavioral expectations, and seclude themselves from their parents and
relay on friends for support instead (2005, p. 23). These perpetuated concepts damage the
importance for parental guidance and support. The system of our culture seems to expect young
adolescence to familiarize with sex, drugs, alcohol, and rebel (Piper, 2005, p. 291). Also, as Piper
(2005) points out,

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Adolescent girls come of age in a culture preoccupied with money, sex and violence, a
culture with enormous problems--poverty, pollution, addictions and lethal sexual
transmitted diseases. And its a culture in which more than half of all children will be
raised by only one parent for at least part of their childhood (p.291).
In order to prevent young children from believing these pressures they need to handle the many
issues in the adolescent world in order to change the media perspectives and values of youth (p.
291). And provide a more anti-bias concept about gender roles.
Also similar to All Gods Children, however from a senior point of view in As We Are
Now, there was an incident where there seem to be no respect and equality in the elderly home.
Towards the beginning of the book, there was a moment when Caroline had witnessed and
experienced the nurses treating the patients as animals. When Caroline had protected her friend
Standish, she was placed on a dark room for a long period of time. Never had she thought she
would become violent, nor question she is going mentally dysfunctional. Though, the treatment
the nurses were towards her and the rest of the seniors is understandable. It seems the elderly
home is like a obligation camp, where the nurses are there to treat, but not properly nurture and
respect them as they should. Lots of emotions start to develop with Caroline, and most of the
emotions are anger, sorrow and confusion. Carolines mental state was from feeling optimistic to
becoming pessimistic. She started to question about her world, who she is, and how she should
behave. And even question the people who pass through. In all results to the environment she had
to live in.

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Conclusion
All of the books had similarities. Even though, the books are based on different age and
socioeconomic perspectives. They all had three things in common. One, their need to understand
themselves and their world, but are pressured and encouraged to become someone they are not or
should not be. Two, the need for attachment, because each of the books have characters or
subjects that are going at many lengths to feel they are appreciated and wanted, like Butch
wanting to feel like he has a family; or have guidance to have a well-balanced childhood. And
three, how society, and even environment, views them, can create a negative effect on their state
of mind. And can cause so much damage, a person with extremely high intelligence to become a
monster, or a pretty young girl to feeling ugly. With all the negative influences, their
environment and people around them had affected them permanently. And the overall result is
something has to change for a better future.

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Reference
Butterfield, F. (2008). All God's children: The Bosket family and the American tradition of
violence. New York: Vintage Books.
Americas Angel (2011, January 1). Eriksons Developmental Stages Retrieved From
http://www.americasangel.org/research/developmental-stages/erikson-developmentalstages/
Pipher, M. (2005). Reviving Ophelia: Saving the selves of adolescent girls. New York:
Riverhead Books.
Sarton, M. (1992). As we are now: A novel. New York: Norton.