One’s identity is influenced by many things. It’s something that one has a choice of what he wants to become. One has a personal choice as to what identity he possesses; for instance, he can choose what he likes, who he wishes to be friends with, and what he wears. After all, “Fashion is an expression of personal identity” (Latterell 11). Queen Latifah states, “All things start inside your soul and work outward” meaning that it is one’s choice as to what he lets work its way out (Latifah 34). People have even made personal choices that affect their identity by changing their name. Just as Firoozeh Dumas describes in The “F Word”, “Thus I started sixth grade with my new, easy name and life became infinitely simpler” (Dumas 86). People made fun of Dumas’ name, Firoozeh, and thus made her want to change her name to fit in; she changed her identity. An identity is mainly comprised of personal choice. Before beginning the explanation of how an identity is formed, one must understand what an identity is. So, what is identity? To answer this, one might think of what gives him individuality; what makes him unique; what makes up his personality. Identity is who one is. Identity is a factor that tells what one wants out of life and how he is set to get it. It tells what kind of a person one is by the attitude and persona he has. And it depends upon the mixture of all parts of one’s life including personal choices and cultural and societal influences, but personal choices affect the identity of one more than the others. A name changing the identity of one is exactly what happened to Firoozeh “Julie” Dumas. Before her name change, Dumas was regarded as being one of those immigrants with a name no one wanted to learn. But after changing her ... ... middle of paper ... ...g factors of an identity such as it is something one is born with or it is something one gains from the society and culture one lives in. Identity is something that forms the mere explanation of who one is and what makes that person themselves. But the personal choices one makes affect the overall identity more than the cultural and societal repercussions do. Works Cited Dumas, Firoozeh. “The “F Word.”” ReMix: Reading Composing Culture. By Catherine G. Latterell. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2010. 84-89. Print. Latifah, Queen. “Who You Callin’ a Bitch?” ReMix: Reading Composing Culture. By Catherine G. Latterell. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010. 33-37. Print. Latterell, Catherine. “Introduction to an Identity.” ReMix: Reading + Composing Culture. Catherine G. Latterell. Ed. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010. 5-13. Print.
After a reader first notices the title of Firoozeh Dumas’ essay, “The F Word”, it may be hard to believe her writing is not about curse words. Her writing is about her experience moving to America and living in a society that is unwilling to accept outsiders. Immigrants face hardship when they come to the United States and she knew that before she moved. But she never thought living with a foreign name would be so challenging. Dumas brings light to those difficulties and how she dealt with them through sentence structure, excellent word choice, and well-written metaphors and similes.
Identity is 'how you view yourself and your life.'; (p. 12 Knots in a String.) Your identity helps you determine where you think you fit in, in your life. It is 'a rich complexity of images, ideas and associations.';(p. 12 Knots in a String.) It is given that as we go through our lives and encounter different experiences our identity of yourselves and where we belong may change. As this happens we may gain or relinquish new values and from this identity and image our influenced. 'A bad self-image and low self-esteem may form part of identity?but often the cause is not a loss of identity itself so much as a loss of belonging.'; Social psychologists suggest that identity is closely related to our culture. Native people today have been faced with this challenge against their identity as they are increasingly faced with a non-native society. I will prove that the play The Rez Sisters showed this loss of identity and loss of belonging. When a native person leaves the reservation to go and start a new life in a city they are forced to adapt to a lifestyle they are not accustomed to. They do not feel as though they fit in or belong to any particular culture. They are faced with extreme racism and stereotypes from other people in the nonreservational society.
What is identity? Often, people confuse identity with personality. While personality describes your personal qualities such as being shy or outgoing, identity involves a combination of different aspects. Culture, language, family, friends, and society are a few of the aspects that helps shape a person's identity. For a person to feel identified, they must share similarities or differences with others. Sharing personality traits is effortless, but identity requires active engagement. Identity also involves a combination of how you see yourself and how others see you. How others see you can be influenced by economic, social, and physical constraints. These constraints cause a tension between how much control you have in constructing your own
Everyone struggles with identity at one point in their life. It will eventually happen to everyone. Identity is how people see one another, it is one of the most important things about someone. Identity goes hand in hand with experience. One’s experiences can impact one’s identity.
Identity: A Matter of Choice? Identities are constructs that encompass the qualities, beliefs, and characteristics that make a particular person or group different from others. An identity is formed partly by individual choice, but is largely predetermined by society’s perceptions of an individual or group. Having individual choice is having the opportunity or power to make a decision. A person’s ability to choose their identity may be limited due to society’s perception of them, whether they are conscious or unconscious of society’s influence.
Identity is all around us. Society associates identity as who someone or something is, but that is not all identity is. Identity concerns both self-personality and social personality. It is best understood as a honest portrayal of ourselves. It is about the individual, society, as well as the relations of us to others. It has been theorized that personality is completely social in someone’s character and does not exist outside of its view in society. Identity is ultimately not a fixed ‘thing’ but a becoming of someone. But what if that is not all identity is? Consider the quote by from John R. Gillis, Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994):
Am I Yaman Hussayni or a Syrian? A question that has been stuck in the halls of my brain for the past week. As it seems to be the issue of identity is a complicated one. Do we choose our identity or it chooses us? And what is identity exactly? According to common idea in society identity is a very general word as it has several branches, cultural identity, personal identity, or even educational one are only some of them. To me, identity is the state of mind by which someone is directly recognized as character in public. It is the fragments of our life that will always remain with us, the permanently unchanging parts of us. Our looks, our beliefs, our culture, the places and things
The term "Identity" is a complete opposite from the way that we are accustomed to seeing it and feeling it, in other words it is non-existent no one has any feelings, and no one posses any of their own personal characteristics, they are all alike. If a person were to try and find their own identity they were looked down upon and had to take a soma holiday (soma was a legal drug that took away all of a persons feelings or individualized idea’s). The soma holiday was everyone’s way out of having to deal with anything unpleasant or their way of having a good time.
What is identity? Identity is an unbound formation which is created by racial construction and gender construction within an individual’s society even though it is often seen as a controlled piece of oneself. In Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum’s piece, “The Complexity of Identity: ‘Who Am I?’, Tatum asserts that identity is formed by “individual characteristics, family dynamics, historical factors, and social and political contexts” (Tatum 105). Tatum’s piece, “The Complexity of Identity: ‘Who Am I?’” creates a better understanding of how major obstacles such as racism and sexism shape our self identity.
Identity. What is identity? One will say that it is the distinct personality of an individual. Others will say that identity is the behavior of a person in response to their surrounding environment. At certain points of time, some people search for their identity in order to understand their existence in life. In regards, identity is shaped into an individual through the social trials of life that involve family and peers, the religious beliefs by the practice of certain faiths, and cultural awareness through family history and traditions. These are what shape the identity of an individual.
Webster's dictionary describes identity as sameness of essential character, individuality, or the fact of being the same person as one claims to be. So your identity can include your name, your age, your job title, or simply characteristics of your body. These things are facts, facts you don't care to share with the world. Just as the word suggests your identity is something by which you can be identified. These are things that describe a person in terms a stranger would understand. This area of identity is proof of who you are. However, your identity is also composed of what you are. They mark your role in society. Who you are and what you do make up your identity. This is essential in the human life span because people are always searching to find where they truly belong in the world.
We are born, we are named. We die, we are named. Be it the name of a new child or the title given to a hero who gives their life for the sake of many, a name is a sacred thing within our world. A name is a mark that follows us, identifies us, and lets us state our place in the world. Humans name everything we come in contact with – corporal or incorporeal. Every substance, action, or emotion has a name. Every state of being is labeled and defined. For centuries this powerful ability to give a name has been used in a variety of ways, some almost sacrilegious to the nearly spiritual act of defining yourself. We have branded, ostracized, and dehumanized using labels as a tool to discriminate against those who do not fall within our own neat little boxes of normality. Yet, for groups invisible to the world at large, naming and labeling retains its power.
Identity, as defined by Wikipedia, is the “qualities, beliefs, and expressions that make a person.” Characters in stories/films, much similar to people, have their own identity. In some cases, characters, for example like the character in the short film More, by Mark Osborne, lose their identity. Adversity is one of the main factors that contribute to that development; it can cause someone’s identity to become stronger or weaker.
Everyone has an identity even though it takes a while to find out what it is. I never thought about what my identity was. I didn’t find my identity until I became a mother, my whole outlook on life changed. Growing up I didn’t have a relationship with my mother, so I didn’t have anyone to show me how to be a mother. I made a packed with myself to be a better mother then my own mother.
Is your name your identity? And if not, is it possible to maintain a stable and truthful inside identity when deprived of all signs of uniqueness such as your own name?