Treading Water: Considering Adolescent Characters in Moratorium

Adolescent literature often seeks to examine the emotional, psychological, and physical growth of adolescents. Psychologists, sociologists, and childhood studies experts have all claimed the importance of adolescence as a time of identity formation. Erik Erikson provides an apt term for this important phase in an individual’s life: moratorium, “a psychosocial stage between childhood and adulthood” that particularly lends itself to a time of exploration and discovery (p. 263). Erikson and one of his successors in adolescent identity development research, James Marcia, use this term to define this stage of exploration because, at this point, the individual suspends her identity formation process in order to explore the options. This pause, although consisting of active experimentation, gives the adolescent time to discover identity options before moving forward in the process. It is often this very process of exploration and discovery that authors depict in adolescent literature. By choosing to analyze the moratorium stage of adolescent characters, scholars, teachers, and caregivers can more easily recognize the ideology embedded within the text and the options authors showcase for adolescent identity.