This is a study of narratives produced by young people during an ethnographic research conducted in Natal-RN with homeless youths aiming to investigate identity construction processes. Two narratives obtained from interviews were analyzed in their formal-rhetorical aspects and submitted to positioning analysis. Such analyses revealed rhetorical complexity and diversity in their emotional and moral climates. The identities were built by youngsters in close dependence to the evaluation of their own role in the production of their current life circumstances. Leaving their homes to go to the streets was presented as a break in their biographical narratives, which were highlighted by their strong ties to social discourse about home and street, despite the uniqueness of the identities they reveal.
Street youth; identity; narrative; self
