Abstract
I explore the identity construction and narrative self of firstborn males at the hand of metaphors contained in the well-known fairytale of the “Frog King”. In many societies around the world, the oldest male offspring — the firstborn, lastborn, or single child — confronts a host of legacies, privileges and social structures that lead him to adopt a particular characterisation of self. Using a non-empirical philosophical design, narrative analysis, and a fairytale as metaphoric framework, I analysed the narratives of two firstborn males explicating images of the crown prince and the frog-prince as metaphors for socially organised frameworks of meaning that define categories and specify what constitutes being a firstborn male. I searched for conceptual linkages between the crown prince, the frog-prince and the dominant discourse of patriarchy in identity construction, proposing that his enmeshment in social stereotypes precludes explorations of a multi-faceted, differentiated self and an integrated adaptation to life's challenges.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
