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Examining Alice Munro´s "Lives of Girls and Women" and "The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose" (AKA "Who Do You Think You Are?") from a new perspective, this book depicts the process of obtaining an ego identity by the protagonists in order to find an answer for the figurative ending of the stories. It investigates the psychological development and ego identity formation of the protagonists by examining chiefly stage five of Eriksonian theory of personality development i.e., ego identity vs. identity confusion. In addition, four identity statuses of James E. Marcia, emphasizing the divergence of a conferred personal identity and a constructed ego identity, are discussed to differentiate the kinds of identity challenged and developed by under study characters. Mapping their process of psychosocial development and the struggles the protagonists undergo (including their dysfunctional relationships and their uneven life) this study justifies the Epilogues´, in which Rose and Del run away from a foreclosed identity with a promising happy-ending and begin a new future with no great promise of success.

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Mehdi Hassanian esfahani is currently a lecturer at Islamic Azad University of Shiraz. He holds a BA (2007) in English Language and Literature from Shiraz University, Iran and an MA (2010) in English Literature from UPM, Malaysia.

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