A Grown Woman with the Mind of an Adolescent

<Tab/>Mrs. Edna Pontellier is a woman without an identity, and a woman without any fidelity to either her relationships or her ideals. This, of course, means that she has not successfully completed Erikson's fifth stage of psychosocial development, the stage of identity versus identity confusion. Edna is a grown woman who has the mind of an adolescent, and this eventually leads to her downfall as a person and the premature …

…of searching for and achieving an identity, she killed herself. Unfortunately, like Edna, many adolescents who are struggling with identity issues also attempt suicide. It is important for society as a whole to provide a support network for these young people so they can positively resolve their identity crises, gain the virtue of fidelity, develop worthwhile relationships, and become fully functioning adults. It's not desirable to have a generation of Ednas running around out there!