Identity, which widely ranges from race, geography, gender, age, and to education, is one of the tools to define someone. However, identity sometimes becomes an obstacle to someone who tries to overcome his or her original identity throughout their life to achieve their dreams and goals, as revealed in both Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and a film Friday Night Lights. Although both Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Friday Night Lights are about teenagers who try to overcome one aspect of their identities by facing the reality, the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is focused on overcoming pressures related to race, while Mike in the Friday night lights is focused on overcoming the pressures related to family …show more content…
After Arnold decides to move to Reardan High School, he encounters barriers due to his racial identity several times. For example, when he first meets Roger, who is white American, Roger and his friends make fun of Arnold by sayings such as calling him as “‘chief’”, ‘Tonto’, or ‘Squaw Boy’” (Alexie 64). Arnold could have just ignored and avoided to fight back. However, he chooses to face reality and fight back Roger and his friends bullying him by punching Roger in his face. Then, Arnold was afraid that Roger might revenge on him, but it did not happen at all. Instead, this becomes an opportunity for Roger to respect Arnold as the same classmate regardless of racial background. Arnold even becomes true friends with Roger even though he has different racial definition. This is significant friendship to Arnold in terms of achieving his goals and dreams because it suggests that he approaches one step forward to his dream of being famous and rich as an artist by overcoming his racial background: Indian. On the other hand, Mike in Friday Night Lights struggles through finding real meaning of playing football to himself by overcoming pressures surrounding him towards the state championship. Before the championship games, he plays football partially because there is a possibility of getting scholarship, and partially because winning the state championship a big thing in his town Odessa, Texas; however, he does not seem to heartily enjoy playing it. When the admission officers of Kansas Wesleyan asks “Do you like playing football?” (Friday Night Lights) and “Is it fun for you?” (Friday Night Lights) to Mike, he responds by saying “Lots of fun, sir” (Friday Night Lights) without full confidence in his voice and attitude. Mike’s unsureness
At the heart of Desi Hoop Dreams lies an interpretation based upon how important intersectional processes are in the making of identities. Three specific intersectional identities deserve emphasis in making this argument from racism, masculinity, and discrimination. These identities can create a tough environment for people trying to fit in with different cultures and backgrounds. In Desi Hoop Dreams, characters Sanjeet and Krush show the difficulties of trying to fit into Atlanta, Georgia with a South Asian background.
Encountering struggles in life defines one’s character and speaks volumes about their strength, ambition, and flexibility. Through struggles, sacrifice, and tragedy, Junior in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, adapts to survive difficult situations and faces his problems head-on. As he makes life changing decisions, adapts to an unfamiliar culture, and finds himself amongst misery and heartbreak, Junior demonstrates resilience to overcome adversity and struggles.
Self-identity allows you to be your own individual person; it allows you to be able to fit in with certain groups. However being a teen and trying to develop a self-identity of you own is very difficult.In Evan Hunter story "On the Sidewalk Bleeding" the theme of self-identity and its cause and effects have been explored.This will be shown through an analysis of why Andy joined the gang, the reasoning of why the couple did not help him, and also Andys thoughts about the identity he has chosen towards the end of the story.
In the book Friday Night Lights by author H.G Bissinger, there are various themes circulating around, However, the theme of racism overwhelms the majority and provides sufficient insight into the social hierarchy and social structure of the town of Odessa, Texas. The book overlooks a group of high school students dedicated to playing football and their struggle with identity, culture, and race. Race not only affects social problems within the book but also psychological, economic and political. Friday Night Lights compares the tensions between the black and white players and the community as a whole, who idolize the game, proving that a single high school football team can shape an entire town. Bissinger uses the racism
Our identities are constantly evolving throughout our lives to adapt to certain people and environments. Lars Fr. H. Svendsen states “Self-identity is inextricably bound up with the identity of the surroundings” One’s morals and characteristics are forever changing and these self resolutions are influenced by the encompassing aspects of life such as significant events, environmental revolutions and one’s relationship with another. Due to factors sometimes beyond our control, one’s self prowess is merely an expression of their own prior experiences which conclusively preserve and maintain a state of fluctuation for one’s character. A similar concept is evident in the film ‘The Sapphires’
The film Friday Night Lights, directed by Peter Berg explains a story about a small town in Odessa, Texas that is obsessed to their high school football team (Permian Panthers) to the point where it’s strange. Boobie Miles (Derek Luke) is an cocky, star tailback who tore his ACL in the first game of the season and everyone in the town just became hopeless cause their star isn’t playing for a long time. The townspeople have to now rely on the new coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton), to motivate the other team members to be able to respect, step up their game, and improve quickly. During this process, racism has made it harder to have a success and be happy and the team has to overcome them as a family.
Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger is a story about a football town. The name of the town is Odessa. It is a small town on the west side of Texas and football is the only thing that matters. Bissinger gives the reader a glimpse of what life is like at an area high school called Permian. Very few towns are obsessed with sports like Permian and Ringgold when it comes to sports programs. In this essay, Permian and Ringgold sports will be compared by their programs and values that they place on sports.
Our lives are defined by our experiences of growing up and of who people are when people are developing. Both, in their respective regards, are something that can be difficult to alter to the individual. Gender, race, classes, and other building blocks of our identity are always shifting to who anyone is and while a person can’t affect themselves, society can, and often does change their perspective towards their own identity and how they interact with the stimulation outside of their psyche.
Establishing an identity has been called one of the most important milestones of adolescent development (Ruffin, 2009). Additionally, a central part of identity development includes ethnic identity (ACT for Youth, 2002). While some teens search for cultural identity within a smaller community, others are trying to find their place in the majority culture. (Bucher and Hinton, 2010)The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian chronicles Junior’s journey to discovery of self. As with many developing teens, he finds himself spanning multiple identities and trying to figure out where he belongs. “Traveling between Reardan and Wellpinit, between the little white town and the reservation, I always felt like a stranger. I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other” (p.118). On the reservation, he was shunned for leaving to go to a white school. At Reardon, the only other Indian was the school mascot, leaving Junior to question his decision to attend school he felt he didn’t deserve. Teens grappling with bicultural identities can relate to Junior’s questions of belonging. Not only is Junior dealing with the struggle between white vs. Indian identities, but with smaller peer group identities as well. In Wellpinit, Junior is th...
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.
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. In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the main character Arnold, also known as Junior, has many health issues, and notably stands out in the crowd. It does not help that he is a poor Indian boy that lives on a Reservation, and that he decides to go to an all white high school. Many of his experiences at school, and on the Reservation impact his identity. Experience is the most influential factor in shaping a person’s identity because
Some people struggle with understanding who they are every day. They constantly look for ways to fit in. Curiosity can make him or her search for their place in society. In the narrative “You don’t look Indian” by Greg Sarris, we follow him in his journey to finding out his true identity.
Racism, stereotypes, and white privilege are all concepts that affect all of us, whether we believe it or not. If an adolescent of a minority can distinguish these concepts in his society, then we all should be aware of them. These concepts are all clearly demonstrated in “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”. Anyone and everyone could clearly understand this novel, but the intended audience is middle school to college level students. The novel’s goal is to help white students understand the effects of white privilege in an easier, more understandable way.
What is personal identity? This question has been asked and debated by philosophers for centuries. The problem of personal identity is determining what conditions and qualities are necessary and sufficient for a person to exist as the same being at one time as another. Some think personal identity is physical, taking a materialistic perspective believing that bodily continuity or physicality is what makes a person a person with the view that even mental things are caused by some kind of physical occurrence. Others take a more idealist approach with the belief that mental continuity is the sole factor in establishing personal identity holding that physical things are just reflections of the mind. One more perspective on personal identity and the one I will attempt to explain and defend in this paper is that personal identity requires both physical and psychological continuity; my argument is as follows:
The fifth stage, according to Erik Erikson psychoanalytic theory of development is the Identity Vs Identity confusion. The stage occurs during adolescence in the ages between 12 to 18 years. At this stage, the adolescents try to find a sense of personal and self-identity by intensely exploring their personal goals, beliefs, and values (McLeod, 2017). Notably, the adolescence is between childhood and adulthood. Thus, their mind is between the morality learned during childhood and the ethics they are trying to develop into adulthood. The transitioning from childhood to adulthood is the most important development for a person because the individual is becoming independent and is focusing on the future regarding career, relationships, families