Using Ariadne's thread in the narrative of the labyrinth as a metaphor for the elusiveness of language, this paper explores the concept of "self" to prepare for the discussion of autobiography as a "tool" for teaching writing, and to create a connection between a politically enabled self, a private self, and critical theory. The paper discusses the enabling of students and encouraging their self-identity--touching on the familial self, the writing self, the political self, the public self, and the metaphysical basis of self and self construction. The paper advises that students need to explore the "self," the events in their lives, the "real me" as operating within the boundaries of social context, to see their voices as part of a communal dialect that is neither fixed nor stable; and further, that, rather than seeing experience as a method of understanding some essential truths, personal narrative should be perceived as a product of ideology. The paper concludes by stating that embracing the poststructural assertion that a person can only understand individual intentions as they are constructed within a social reality neglects to acknowledge that individuals can reflect on and trace those threads that form their subjectivity, and with this understanding, challenge and change the social discourse that determines their identities. (Contains 11 references.) (CR)