Analysis Of In Owning Your Own Shadow

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Who am I? What’s my purpose in this world? What makes me do things certain ways than other people? Am I one of a kind? If I am who is this person always following me around in bright daylight but leave me in pitch dark? Yes, I am talking about the shadow of ours which Johnson emphasize in this reading and gives us many different aspects of its meaning. We live in a world filled with different ways of life. Does that mean we all are losers in each other eyes because we do not follow each other ways of life? Of course not it but it 's a norm or should I say it 's like our shadow follows us everywhere. We tend to think what I am doing is the best ways of life anything else is just there for us to criticize. I do feel like I am being looked down …show more content…

Johnson argues, "The shadow is the part of us we fail to see or know," (4). What I think he means by this is that the shadow can be an outlook for the unlived life caused by a specific pattern of life decisions. I strongly agree because a lot of times we deny the realities and are unable to face the truths. The way Johnson explains shadow is not the way I understood shadow before, rather just understanding that a shape is created by a body coming between rays of light and a surface. Now the word shadow has a deeper meaning in my life because it taught me that if I have the right mindset it can change the outlook I have on my life. In the society I grew up in I was taught not to fail and I could not be seen as a failure. For instance, when I was younger we would get rewarded if we finished our daily chores and homework. If we did fail it would be a huge deal and the people you knew would see you totally different than your other siblings. Which is why in the present, failure doesn 't exist in my dictionary. I think it would be beneficial if we were to care about shadow because of how it could affect us in life by helping us make better choices and lead us to a certain realization that at some point in life we have to grow …show more content…

When you think of shadow and light, you might think they are not associated with each other, but Robert Johnson states, "To make light is to make shadow; one cannot exist without the other" (17). He means that perhaps a certain circumstance in life may appear only dark to you; however, if you look deeper there is a bright side to it. When you construct light in the dark what do you see ahead of you? You see the shadow. Before I saw light as the natural sight that made things visible. Now I see balance with light in my life. In my dark situations, I can find the light. For example, when I stress about writing an English paper I decide to look at the positive and see how it 's challenging me to accomplish my goals in life. Light and balance are important for people because it can decrease the anxiety or stress in one 's life. You can look beyond the terrible situation and get passed it which can help you be

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