It is no surprise that she fakes her death and runs away from her life with Arthur soon thereafter. Throughout her life, the only major relationship where Joan does not transform her identity to please (or displease, in her mother=s case) another person is the one she has with her Aunt Lou. Aunt Lou is not demanding or judgmental, and she gives Joan to the opportunity to really be herself. AShe actually seemed interested in what I had to say, and she didn=t laugh when I told her I wanted to be an opera singer@ (Atwood 81). Aunt Lou=s loving acceptance of Joan gave her the chance to express what she felt and thought, without worrying about what other people thought. This takes on significance when Joan decides to take her Aunt Lou=s full name, Louisa K. Delacourt, as her pen name. Aunt Lou was the only person that Joan showed her true identity to, without putting on a performance. In the same way, Louisa K. Delacourt served as Joan=s only outlet where she could be herself after Aunt Lou=s death.Throughout Atwood=s novel, Joan=s identity is determined by the relationships she has with the different people she encounters throughout her life. Joan spends a great deal of her life pretending to be a person that she is not. She puts on performances for the people in her life, so that no one really knows who she truly is. She often alters her behavior and her way of thinking in order to better fit in with her surroundings. In fact, she does so much pretending and role playing throughout Lady Oracle, that one may become confused as to who Joan Foster really is. That is where the role of her relationships come in. Joan, at any given moment, is an extension of the person she is in a relationship with. Therefore, Joan=s identity is formed by her relationships....
