On Golden Pond and Human Identity

Erik H. Erikson (95) argued that human beings go through a series of developmental stages in which a crisis must be addressed and overcome in order for the individual to move forward in the developmental cycle and to realize his or her identity. This particular approach to understanding human identity can be explored through an analysis of the central characters in Mark Rydell's 1981 film, On Golden Pond. The three characters from the film to be assessed herein are Ethel and Norman Thayer and their daughter Chelsea Thayer Wayne.

Vincent Canby (1) described the film as focused on one summer in the lives of Norman and Ethel Thayer, a retired and crotchety university professor and his bright, spunky wife of nearly 50 years, and their only daughter, Chelsea, who Norman has never forgiven for not being a boy. In the course of this summer, Chelsea asks her parents to take care of the teenaged son of her fiancT at their vacation home, "on Golden Pond."

Through his relationship with the young boy, Billy Ray, Norman Thayer learns to love and his daughter learns to love him (Canby, 2). Norman, as an aging man

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