Finding/Becoming One's Self

For much of the novel, Halley Cooke is defined as Scarlett's best friend, her mother's daughter or Macon Faulkner's girlfriend. Although her mother and Scarlett both encourage her to improve her sense of self - Scarlett by encouraging her to be less of a "wuss" and Halley's mother by insisting Halley attend camp to find herself and improve her self-esteem - Halley continues to define herself by those around her. This starts to change over the summer before Halley's junior year, during which Halley begins to rebel against her mother and considers herself, "the New Me, someone I was evolving into with every hot and humid long summer day." (p. 18)

However, at the beginning of Halley's junior year, she still sees herself as "just an outline in a coloring book, with the inside not yet completed ... But the colors, the zigzags and plaids, the bits...