Judith Butler Beside Oneself Summary

What is identity? Why is it important to us? What influences our identity? All interesting questions with a variety of answers. Identity is but only a wide idea that expands on several branches, those being the factors that shapes and molds us to becoming the people we are today. From gender and socioeconomic class to cultural heritage and lived experiences and many more, these factors contribute a piece of ourselves that creates an identity of how we are seen in society and a path that is set up for us made up of certain opportunities and social norms to follow. In“Beside Oneself” by Judith Butler, the author discusses that identity is made up of multiple outside forces that influence our behavior, way of thinking, skills that we have gained

For me, experiencing grief from losing a loved family member, specifically my closest aunt at the age of seven made me open to experiencing true sadness for the first time. During that grieving process I went through the multiple stages of grieving which were denial, anger, depression, and finally acceptance which helped me over this emotional obstacle to become a mentally stronger individual. Something so powerful as grief takes a huge toll on anyone’s life and hold them to a momentary stop to process their surroundings and think what is the next course of action. A heartfelt experience such as grief for any person to experience allows us to learn from that period of hurting and realize that each hardship that we overcome, allows us to become mentally stronger as a person. Butler discusses the importance of grief by stating, “On the contrary, grief displays the way in which we are in the thrall of our relations with others that we cannot always recount or explain, that often interrupts the self-conscious account of ourselves as autonomous and in control.” (19) This section in her essay dedicated to grief and how it plays a huge role into our identity shows that experiencing tragic event(s) allow us to open up to new skills of coping, reactions, and thinking to the extent that a part of yourself has been shaped to handle tragedies in our life. In order

Every year, we would go to visit the Grand Temple in San Jose to pray and donate to the people of the temple and celebrate with food afterwards. I believe that culture does influence my identity that creates two ways of seeing society in my mind which affects how I behave, express and portrayed in society, so that nobody is compared to any other person and they should stand out in their own way. Butler introduces the concept of how culture can penetrate our lives interpersonally where we inherit lessons we have learned from those experiences. The author states, “...given the racial differential that undergirds the culturally viable notions of the human-ones that we see acted out in dramatic and terrifying ways in the global arena at the present time.” (Butler 24) My culture influences me in direct and indirect ways through communication, celebrations with family, and religious beliefs from visiting temples that impacts the way I think and view of the world along with social/ political issues and how to speak up in society. I believe that having all three of these social location working together, each factor impacts my personality by how I react to situations/ communications, how I think and process information, and how I choose to express myself as an individual in