Turning Points: Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Americans

Author Information

Heidi Boerstler, University of Colorado, United States

Abstract

Learn how a culturally and ethnically diverse group of older Americans chose to act in extraordinary ways at turning points in their lives. Using case study and ethnographic methodologies, analysis of participant narratives finds stories of redemption, and of trying to make the world a better place. Significantly for the study’s emphasis on the contributions that older adults’ stories make to our understanding of life events, each participants’ way of finding redemption manifested differently. The turning point paradoxically became a place to declare freedom from imprisonment through sociocultural stereotyping, and predetermined societal roles. As subjective narratives, the life stories in this study provide the truth of experience, a sense of unity and purpose to life, and perhaps also psychological tools for meeting life's opportunities, joys, and challenges in the later years, and wisdom to share with those who follow. This study invites new awareness of the power of narrative, recognizing and welcoming cultural beliefs about what people are like and what the world is like, and uniting us in story as the medium thorough which we pay tribute to the human condition.