Hunter Pelt, Motivation and Emotion

     As a young woman, Vivienne was imbued with a strong growth mindset.  She approached life with an "I can do anything that I really want to if I work for it" attitude.  She was often described by her friends, family, and even herself as a carefree spirit who always tried to pursue what she desired out of life.  In her younger years, her actions were driven by the pursuit to achieve an ideal self that she had envisioned based on hopes and aspirations (the marks of someone with a promotion approach attitude).   Her ideal self was to become "a big successful journalist," and wife of the first love of her life.  Unfortunately, she was never able to make many of these bigger aspirations come to light do to external circumstances (i.e. the death of her first love in WWII).       However, in her later years her achievement goals seemed to change, as did her ideal self and attitude towards reaching this self....

     Vivienne shows a large degree of relatedness, particularly as a youth.  She and her best friends have always been close.  They would often sneak out of the house at night and meet deep in the woods where they would build fires and have mock ceremonies, bringing them all closer together (giving themselves the titular name: the Ya-Ya Sisterhood).  Their bond is one that persists well into old age.  Their friendship drives many of their actions as they seek support, approval, and companionship throughout their lives, such as supporting one another as they go through divorces, AA, and marital issues.       One particularly comical instance of intrinsic motivation that (potentially) arises from relatedness comes from a hot summer night when Vivi and her friends were young women in their 20s.  As they sat and pooled in sweat from the excruciating heat, they decided to go for a car ride late at night (a convertible with the to...

       Vivienne's Intrinsic Motivations           Vivienne's childhood is told parallel to her own daughter's throughout the narrative, and so we are given flashbacks to the 1930s of Vivi as a child.  Vivi had an African-American caretaker, Willetta, when she was a child.  There is one night, whilst traveling to Atlanta for the premier of "Gone with the Wind" that Vivi hears Willetta crying in her bedroom.  So, Vivi goes to Willetta and comforts her.  This may be an example of intrinsic motivation because there is no external force or obligation that drives Vivi to do this except for the personal satisfaction of comforting a woman who has long cared for her.            Another example comes from when Vivi was a young woman with her daughter.  There is an example of when Vivi's daughter, Sidda, is too afraid to ride in a small, open a...

The individual I have chosen to analyse for the purpose of this class is the character Vivienne Walker, from the novel and film, "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."  her daughter, Siddalee is a successful play-write who lives in New York, but hails from the Louisiana bayous.  Sidda's childhood was shrouded in both love, abuse, and secrets... all of which she draws upon for inspiration for her plays.  It is during an interview with a journalist that Sidda divulges a bit of her past but is inadvertently misquoted.  The publication which tells the world of her family's misfortunes (many of which Sidda herself does not completely understand or comprehend) drives a wedge between her and her mother, Vivienne, resulting in Sidda uninviting Vivienne to Sidda's upcoming wedding.  To try and amend the feud, much of which stems from miscommunication and misunderstanding on both sides, Vivienne's life long friends (who also helped raise Sidda growing up) kid...