Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation




       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 airplane and refuses to go up, so Vivi leaves her be.  However, when they return home, her daughter is clearly distraught over having missed her chance to go up in the air.  So, Vivi turns around and takes her daughter back to the fair ground.  When she realizes that she must pay extra to the pilot to go up now (it's the end of the day and he doesn't have enough gas for another flight), she goes to her husband's gas station and proceeds to outwit the gas attendant into giving her the money she needs.  She then takes Sidda back to the fairground, and they both go up in the plane together.  Here, Vivi is clearly driven by intrinsic motivations.  She wants to make her daughter happy which would bring herself joy.  She also wishes to demonstrate to her daughter that she must never let fear stop her from obtaining what she wants... something Sidda has always held close to heart as an adult.

      Vivienne's Extrinsic Motivations

       As an older woman, Vivi goes to great lengths keep her daughter from really knowing the truth about the past out of shame and remorse.  She tries to thwart her best friends' efforts to reveal the truth regarding Vivi and Sidda's past to Sidda.  Hear, one could constitute this as an example of extrinsic motivation, in that there are external forces beyond Vivi's control which drive her to do certain things. 
      Another argument might also be made for the beginning of Vivi's psychotic break.  Alcoholism from dealing with her own ghosts was deteriorating her marriage and family.  So, she sought out medical help (albeit the fact that it backfired).  Alcoholism was the external stimulus which motivated her to seek out a way to cure it. 

Comments

  1. Jeannine TurnerSeptember 16, 2018 at 12:47 PM

    Your descriptions of Vivi's motivations have multiple layers, so it is hard to discern the extent to which your "label" is accurate. Did Vivi comfort Willetta out of intrinsic motivation, or a sense identified motivation — it's a good thing to do — or a sense of introjected motivation — I'd feel bad if I left without trying to comfort? Did the character give some hint about how she felt that could help us clearly label her motivation?

    Did Vivi work so hard to get her daughter to experience flying because Vivi has intrinsic motivation to fly — she genuinely loves to fly herself; or that she was intrinsically motivated by facilitating her daughter's happiness? Was she motivated through guilt of seeing her daughter unhappy and she felt like it was her duty to alleviate her sadness? Or, did she feel that going through all those behaviors demonstrated to her daughter that Sidda must never let fear stop her from obtaining what she wants; therefore, she is acting out of identified motivation — she sees the value in doing so.

    I wonder if the writer provides more details that could indicate more precisely the nature of the motivation. Try to provide as clear of an example as possible!

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