Abstract

This article uses the metaphor of a quest for a secret self to discuss Mary McCarthy's Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, and to place the work in the context of several other autobiographies. Many autobiographies are structured along similar lines, focussing on a consciousness, and ending with a quest for creation of an authentic and highly revealed self. In this final stage McCarthy tries to portray her grandmother, and the article thus elaborates on the final chapter, "Ask Me No Questions".

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