Performed Identities: A Means to an End
Performed identities exist primarily due to the fact that people are simply unable to attain or achieve a certain power, wealth, or escape through a natural means within their true identity. These performed identities allow people to accomplish the difficult task of cutting through social boundaries. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story, “The Man with the Twisted Lip”, Neville St. Clair skips over social boundaries as a middle-class, ex-reporter living the performed identity as a rich upper-class gentleman. In his daily routine, St. Clair leaves behind his family and the norms of an upper class life each morning to take on a detestable alter-identity as Hugh Boone, a beggar and match salesman. Often times in the presence of a single performed identity, a second may be created in response to the first. St. Clair's first, very private performed identity is that of Boone the beggar, which in turn leads him to the accidental creation of St. Clair, the very public English gentleman. While St. Clair skips up over social boundaries between middle and upper-class, he must then leap down over the boundaries from his upper class lifestyle to gain the wealth only made possible with makeup and the ragged clothing of Boone.
At first glance, it appears that St. Clair has only one performed identity, that of Boone the beggar, however upon further examination one can observe that there is another performed identity, that of St. Clair the upper-class businessman. St. Clair, in his natural identity as a reporter is caught in the middle between these two polar extreme identities. St. Clair worked as a reporter for the evening paper in London for which he was assigned to write on begging in the metropo...
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...ddle class reporter up to a powerful and wealthy man. However, through the process he must take a very large step down in order to take an even larger step up within society.
Performed identities are things not limited to tales of fiction. Every day, they manifest themselves based on what we have to gain from certain situations. Doyle uses this story to address the issue and bring to light the fact that performed identities exist within each of us. For Neville St. Clair, it was a path to a better life. For you or I, it can be as small as making a better first impression at a party by elevating ourselves beyond who we really are. Performed identities do not have to be complex, well thought out or long-lasting. Through a degree of deception, large or small, they create in all of us an ability to achieve something otherwise not attainable within our natural self.
Richard’s own identity as well as his personal identification of others is formed through language. For example, in Richard’s encounter with the Yankee, Richard used language to fill up the “yawning, shameful gap.” He uses personification to emphasize the awkwardness of their conversation. This awkwardness was a result of the Yankee’s probing questions. Richard described it as an “unreal-natured” conversation, but, paradoxically, he also admits, “of course the conversation was real; it dealt with my welfare.” The Yankee man then tried to offer Richard a dollar, and spoke of the blatant hunger in Richard’s eyes. This made Richard feel degraded and ashamed. Wright uses syntax to appropriately place the conversation before making his point in his personal conclusions. In the analogy, “A man will seek to express his relation to the stars…that loaf of bread is as important as the stars” (loaf of bread being the metonymy for food), Wright concludes “ it is the little things of life “ that shape a Negro’s destiny. An interesting detail is how Richard refuses the Yankee’s pity; he whispers it. From then on, Richard identified him as an enemy. Thus, through that short, succinct exchange of words, two identities were molded.
Parker’s disquiet is awakened at the age of fourteen upon seeing a tattooed man at the fair. He is “filled with emotion, lifted up as some people are when the flag passes…. Until he saw the man at the fair, it did not enter his head that there was anything out of the ordinary about the fact that he existed” (513). Parker attempts to deny that his existence is, in fact, extraordinary. He was a boy who was “heavy and earnest, as ordinary as a loaf of bread” (513). He refuses to own up to the fullness of his identity by refusing to go by his full name, “Obadiah Elihue,” to the point of “narrowly [missing] killing the man who used it” (517). He attempts to cure this “peculiar unease” (513) with himself by getting tattoos. This appeases that unrest, but not for long: “Parker would be satisfied with each tattoo abo...
How many people honestly know their true identity? In today’s society, some try so hard to fit in, they lose themselves in the mixture. However, those who stay true to themselves sometimes lose society in the mix. In the novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany, written by John Irving, the characters all show some sort of notable identity. Whether the character’s characteristics are known or hidden, they all assume uniqueness that significantly affect major characters in the novel such as Johnny and Owen. A theme clearly portrayed throughout this novel is having a sense of identity, which is shown through the characters Harriet, Dick and Mr. Merrill.
Taylor, S. (2009) ‘Who We Think We Are? Identities in Everyday life’, in Taylor, S., Hinchliffe, S., Clarke, J. and Bromley, S. (eds), Making Social Lives, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
...ver a true definition of identity and his own real identity, he is still as naïve and as gullible as he was at the beginning. He is the “same human individual, [seen] [differently] only in appearance” (Griffon 161). Every person who he had encountered had held a unique perception of him and even if that is not how he had desired to be perceived it is his own actions that originally driven them to that belief. Yes, he still has a unique identity of his being held in his core, but it is just as real as the identity that others hold around him but only relevant by the existence of belief. Identity is a tool only relevant to those who use it, if man functioned away from society then identity becomes pointless, illogical. Yet as the Narrator chooses to live as a part of society, he is still solely responsible for creating the path that serves to define him negatively.
The narrator's life is filled with constant eruptions of mental traumas. The biggest psychological burden he has is his identity, or rather his misidentity. He feels "wearing on the nerves" (Ellison 3) for people to see him as what they like to believe he is and not see him as what he really is. Throughout his life, he takes on several different identities and none, he thinks, adequately represents his true self, until his final one, as an invisible man.
In general, identity means how one sees himself/herself and others around in order to distinguish himself/herself as different. David Snow differentiates between the ‘individual’ and ‘collective’ identity as “personal identities are the attributes and meaning attributed to oneself by the actor, they are self-designations and self-attributions regarded as personally distinctive.” (Snow 2) On the other hand, the “collective identities attributed or imputed to others in an attempt to situate them in social space. They are grounded in established social roles.”(Snow 2) This research paper aims at examining the role of ‘collective’ identity that is formed on the expenses of the ‘individual’ identity and how this leads to physical and psychological repression in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Isaac Babel’s “My First Goose.”
To build a house, we need a strong base. With a strong base, we would be able to have a better foundation for the house, so it depended on us to choose what kind of base we want to use to build our house. Just like a house, an identity for an individual, is about making a decision, and that decision will shape their identity. A couple years ago, it never crossed in my mind, that one day I would live someplace away from home, family, and friends. I thought I had everything in life, and it made me never grateful with what I had. But then, I made a decision to move to United States, and since I moved to United States, I became a responsible and a grateful person.
Everyone at some point is bound to experience situations where they question who they really are. This conflict usually arises as a result of either another’s actions or one’s own actions. In the short story “On the Sidewalk Bleeding”, Andy struggles with his self-identity. Furthermore, the barber in “Just Lather, That’s All”, battles with his abilities and image of himself. Therefore, both the barber and Andy face an inner conflict as a result of their struggle of determining who they genuinely are, which conclusively results in how their future will unfold.
Identity is defined as being oneself and not acting or being something else. The identity that one forms throughout their life time is a slow and tedious process, each and every event in one’s life whether it’s larger or small scale has an effect on developing ones overall identity. In the play Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth by Drew Hayden Taylor, Janice it caught between two identities and struggles to find a happy medium. Being adopted into a white family at a young age, Janice has become accustom to many of the white traditions and ways. Janice’s native family has recently gotten in touch with her and has put a great deal of pressure on her to regain some of the native culture she was born into. With pressure building Janice begins to question her identity and begins to show signs that she wants nothing to do with her native roots. Drew Hayden Taylor does an excellent job in this play showing how stereotypes and pre-conceived notions affect ones identity and their relationships within society. Each character within the play shows how their identity has been shaped through the relationships they have acquired throughout their lives; Tonto’s identity is heavily influenced by his father and best friend Rodney, Barb is influenced by the customs and traditional ways of her mother, and Janice after being adopted at a young age has formed an identity revolving around that of her adopted parents but she faces a great deal of pressure from her native birth family.
In Tony Kushner’s play “Angels in America” the strong concept of “identity” is explored through each character. Factors such as religion, sexuality, and social class play a role in assigning the play’s characters with their own sense of individuality. Living in such an unaccepting world, at times it can be hard to find your true self. Throughout Tony Kushner’s play “Angels in America”, there are quite a few characters who have trouble accepting themselves for who they really are. Whether it is striving for a new identity, or being limited by one according to social standards.
Culture influences identity greatly and this can be seen in “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini. When looking at all of the characters in this book there always seemed to be one that stood out to me more than all of the other characters. This unruly character that made so many decisions and executed so many actions that I would never even dream of doing or hear of others doing. Rasheed is proud of his culture and embraces it with open arms, he is not a man of change and refers to some of the changes around him disgustingly as “modern”. Making it very clear that he is not and never will be like those revolting “modern men” and that he is on a much higher level than them.
Identity is a state of mind in which someone recognizes/identifies their character traits that leads to finding out who they are and what they do and not that of someone else. In other words it's basically who you are and what you define yourself as being. The theme of identity is often expressed in books/novels or basically any other piece of literature so that the reader can intrigue themselves and relate to the characters and their emotions. It's useful in helping readers understand that a person's state of mind is full of arduous thoughts about who they are and what they want to be. People can try to modify their identity as much as they want but that can never change. The theme of identity is a very strenuous topic to understand but yet very interesting if understood. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez and Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki are two remarkable books that depict the identity theme. They both have to deal with people that have an identity that they've tried to alter in order to become more at ease in the society they belong to. The families in these books are from a certain country from which they're forced to immigrate into the United States due to certain circumstances. This causes young people in the family trauma and they must try to sometimes change in order to maintain a comfortable life. Both authors: Alvarez and Houston have written their novels Is such an exemplifying matter that identity can be clearly depicted within characters as a way in adjusting to their new lives.
There are millions of words across the globe that are used to describe people and uncover their identity, but what is identity? How can you begin to describe something that varies so greatly from one human being to another? Can you create a universal meaning for a word describing human concepts that people often fail to define for themselves? Of course there isn't one definition to define such a word. It is an intricate aspect of human nature, and it has a definition just as complex.
There are multiple definitions of identity, more theorists have intense debates of what is the real basis of describing it. One of those is Judith Butler who belies that identity is ontological fiction and defined sex as performativity (Hekman,2000). To classify, identity starts by defining sex and gender, which are both formations of identifying a person. Additionally, Sex was acquired from birth with “biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women” (World Health Organization, 2016). For example, male and female have different reproductive organs on the emphasis that women give birth and men do not. Moreover, the impression of having different features, man or woman comes with the completion of gestures, roles and