Identity construction of the main character in Lady Bird movie

This study aims to examine the construction of Christine McPherson’s identity in the movie Lady Bird through her use of language, which shows that Christine performs certain identities in accordance with the existing social context. There are two problems to be solved in this study, namely: (1) What identities does Christine show in Lady Bird movie? and (2) how does Christine construct her identities through the language use in Lady Bird movie? This study employed a qualitative descriptive approach to examine how Christine’s language use constructs her identities. In collecting data, the researcher watched Lady Bird to understand the overall plot of the movie. After that, the researcher downloaded the Lady Bird screenplay and selected several scenes that indicated Christine’s strong negotiation in bringing out her identity based on the five roles she played. After the data was collected, the researcher described and interpreted the identities performed by Christine based on the five principles of identity construction proposed by Bucholtz and Hall (2005). This study reveals that Christine presents different identities according to her role and social context when interacting. There are five key roles in which Christine presented different identities. (1) As a daughter, Christine displays three identities: a free-spirited daughter, a bad daughter, and an independent daughter. (2) As a student, Christine presents two identities: a highly aspirational student and an average-grade student. (3) As a lover, Christine presents three identities: a unique girlfriend, a performative lover, and a lover with a poor background. (4) As a friend, Christine displays two identities: a cool friend and a supportive friend. (5) As a newcomer in New York, Christine presents two identities: an ordinary person and a person from San Francisco. Based on the identities presented by Christine, it is evident that identity is a product that emerges and is negotiated contextually. This can be seen from how Christine switches identities by positioning herself socially through language in order to adapt to the context of interaction in order to achieve recognition or certain goals. However, there is one identity that Christine always emphasizes, namely her identity as a free, unique person with high aspirations.