Who am I?

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Who am I?

(1) Throughout the semester in English composition II, the class was asked to explore the question, “Who am I?” and try to seek an answer. The reading assignments that were given to us this semester permitted you to ask ourselves the question, “Who am I?. In the plays, poems, short stories, and novella that we read the characters in them faced some type of conflict. In the play A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, in the poem “ To His Coy Mistress”, by Andrew Marvell, in the short story “ A Devoted Friend“, by Oscar Wilde, and in the novella Metamorphosis , by Franz Kafka, the conflict that they all portrayed was appearance/reality. The short story and novella exposed the conflict slight differently than the other pieces of work. The conflict appearance/reality is vital in determining who you are as a person/individual. Sometimes individuals do not express his/her true self to other individuals. Sometimes society does not see us for our true selves. The self perceived I is the image/way you see yourself. The I is who you truly are as a person. The other perceived me is the image/way others, meaning society, sees you. It is the image you want them to see of you. When the I is unequal to the me then there is conflict.

(2) An illustration of appearance/reality where the individual (s) do not show others/society who he/she really is as a person is found in the play and in the poem. In the play, A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen the characters are portrayed as being very secretive and deceitful. All of the characters including Nora, Torvald, Dr. Rank, Krogstad, and Mrs. Linde, were all keeping something isolated from everyone. Sometimes people do not portray who they truly are as a person and others help us show who our true selves really are. Henrik Ibsen in this play shows his readers how lies and deception can revolutionize an individual’s life. This is clearly an example of appearance/reality where an individual does not show others/society who they really are as a person. In the play, Nora does not let known of what kind of person she really is.

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