Hurtado1

Jessica Hurtado
Mr.Newman
English 101: Rhetoric
30 November 2014
Statement of Scope for the Annotated Bibliography
For most adolescents, growing up can be intimidating and new responsibilities can be
over whelming. But just like any problem, most teens prefer to figure it out themselves. With
hormones racing and different cliques growing, its difficult for teenagers to figure out who they
are. In Veronica Roths Divergent, each character has a chosen destiny and identity, there is no
option for them. For most teens, the pressure of parents wanting them to be a certain way and
believe in certain things only confuses them more and complicates their wants over their
parents. During the age of identity crisis, its common for teens to push away their parents
because they feel that that dont connect well and immediately jump to conclusions leading to
lectures and arguments. How can parents help make the awkward phase of identity crisis easier
on teenagers? Its simple, teens need moral, emotional support and explanations instead of stern
Nos. If parents provide provision and understanding to their teen during an identity crisis
instead of lecturing right away, it will guide them in the right direction in discovering
themselves.
This essay will explore what parents can do to help make identity crisis easier on teens.
While most parents instant reaction to a bad decision is to lecture and punish, they rarely
consider the motif behind the decision. Most of the time, a teenager acting out could be a cry for
help. Because most teens dont like to go to their parents when dealing with an emotional
problem, they decide to behave impulsively. I will look at ways parents can prevent a fall out and

Hurtado2
bad decisions with their teens. I will examine how talking through a problem with teens is a more
efficient way than immediately yelling and carrying out discipline. Additional to the calm
talking, I will look at how parents advice has an impact on how teenagers define themselves.
Likewise the ambition of a teen can be crushed by a parents expectation. Furthermore, I will
provide example situations in which parents effectively offering guidance and encouragement
can change the viewpoint for many teenagers about themselves.
This selected bibliography includes sources that discuss calm talking, offering advice and
direction, holding back on severe punishment and desires being put off by parents. While I have
examples of parents advice and pushing away personal ambitions for their teens, I do not have
cases of speaking calmly and not punishing teens right away for their impulsive actions. I would
need more sources for references on how talking through a problem with a teenager works better
than yelling and enforcing strict discipline. The McCuller essay address how personal goals can
be demolished by parent expectations. The Bently, Keren and urbanization essays all describe
situations in where a parent or chosen path discourage a teenager to fulfill their passions. All
together these sources provide information on several but not all sides of identity crisis and how
a parents role has a significant effect in determining their identity.

Hurtado3
Annotated Bibliography
Anonymous. "How to... deal with a brand identity crisis." Marketing. 01 Sep. 2014: 78.
eLibrary. Web. 04 Dec. 2014. This source discusses the way teenagers deal with identity
crisis and the emotional changes that come along with it. The anonymous author uses examples
such as consistency and parents to explain ways to handle going through identity crisis.
Bentley, Greg. "A Man Named Mabel Bobbie Ann Mason's Shiloh and the Concept of
Subjectivity." Gale Student Resources in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2007. Student Resources
in Context. Web. 4 Dec. 2014. This source discusses how personal ambitions can be held
back or put off because of outside forces. Bentley uses many examples from A Man Named
Mabil Bobbie and Anne Masons Shiloh to distinguish how finding ones self is difficult with
other people deciding what is good for you.
Keren, Michael. "The quest for identity in Sayed Kashua's Let it be Morning." Israel Studies
19.1 (2014): 126+. Student Resources in Context. Web. 4 Dec. 2014. This source
discusses how an identity crisis can be handled from a religious viewpoint. Keren explains how
in an Arab and Jewish state, most decisions are made for a person by their parents and how that
can bring confusion to identity. After explaining this, many Israelis and Arabs felt limited with
what they could do and who they could be.
"Urbanization: Modern Crisis in Tribal Identity." UXL Multicultural: A Comprehensive
Resource on African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native North Americans.
Detroit: U*X*L, 2003. Student Resources in Context. Web. 4 Dec. 2014. This source
discusses how being a leader affects identity because of the responsibility. The author explains

Hurtado4
how in Native American tribes, being a leader is a great weight to bear on ones shoulders and it
caused several leaders to be confused on their identity and who they thought they were because
of the pressure being put on them.
Westling, Louise. "Carson McCullers's Tomboys." DISCovering Authors. Detroit: Gale, 2003.
Student Resources in Context. Web. 4 Dec. 2014. This source discusses how identity
crisis is seen through multiple persons eyes, especially in a tribe where decisions are made for
you. Westling describes what it is like for a young girl going through an identity crisis and how
she is treated because she acts like a tom boy. Because Native American tribes have set standards
on how people should behave, she is frowned upon because of her actions.