A person grows up in the shadow of her parents or guardians, and eventually she comes to a point in her life where she wants to break free of their influence and explore her own identity. The path of finding one 's self-identity is to find descriptive characteristics, qualities and abilities that enable one to define oneself. In the novel, White Oleander, by Janet Fitch, the main character, Astrid, was separated from her mother, who has been convicted of murder, is put in to the foster care system. As various guardians take her under their wings and teach Astrid their ways, Astrid attempts to find her identity. One can say self-identity always arises from a reaction to the prominent cultural and social influences in one 's life. In the following paragraphs, we support our argument by considering Astrid 's mothers chains on her …show more content…
Whatever her mother said was final, no ifs or buts. For 12 years, Astrid grew up with her mother making all of her life decisions, but when Ingrid murders her ex-boyfriend and goes to prison, Astrid is sent into the foster care system where she lives with different mothers. On this journey, she tries to discover who she is as a person and break free from her mother’s shadow. Astrid first apprehended she been existing in her mother’s shadow once she discovers that Ingrid does not have faith in anything but herself, no higher law, no morality. Ingrid believed she could justify anything just because she wanted to. In the fear of becoming like her mother, Astrid decides to believe in something larger. “The question of good and the nature of evil will always be one of philosophy’s most intriguing problems…If evil means to be self-motivated, to be the center of one’s own universe, to live on one’s own terms, then every artist, every thinker, every original mind is evil. Because we dare to look through our own eyes rather than mouth clichés lent us from the so-called Fathers. ”
One’s sense of identity is shaped by the conception of how one faces challenges in the world. In Octavia Butler’s science fiction novel, Kindred, Butler explores the idea of maintaining one’s identity within an oppressive society. Dana’s experiences in the antebellum South push her to draw from within and around her to persevere through not only the past, but the present too. As Dana completes a journey which is unexpected and complex, it allows her to realize how strong she is because of her ability to preserve her understanding of herself despite any alienation in the past.
While she might think that her plans are working, they only lead her down a path of destruction. She lands in a boarding house, when child services find her, she goes to jail, becomes pregnant by a man who she believed was rich. Also she becomes sentenced to 15 years in prison, over a street fight with a former friend she double crossed. In the end, she is still serving time and was freed by the warden to go to her mother’s funeral. To only discover that her two sisters were adopted by the man she once loved, her sister is with the man who impregnated her, and the younger sister has become just like her. She wants to warn her sister, but she realizes if she is just like her there is no use in giving her advice. She just decides that her sister must figure it out by
Because of the life that Christine leads, the role of mother and daughter are switched and Rayona often finds herself watching out for her mom. When Ray comes home from school, she would often learn that her mother had gone out to party. Times like this meant that Rayona had to care for herself. It is not uncommon for one to stay out late; but when it is the parent who is doing so, one must question the responsibility of the person. When Christine leaves the hospital, Rayona shows up and helps prevent a potential disaster. She realizes what her mother plans to do, and that her mom will not crash the car with her on board. While Christine is not very reliable, she has no wish to hurt Rayona either; Ray's prediction was correct. As a child, Rayona must fulfill more obligations than a normal teen. Over the time that leads to her abandonment, Rayona begins to feel displaced from her mother. Christine's increasing self concern causes Rayona to feel her mom is ignoring her, when that is not true at all.
The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.
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.
In the novella The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the main character Edna Pontellier “becomes profoundly alienated from traditional roles required by family, country, church, or other social institutions and is unable to reconcile the desire for connection with others with the need for self-expression” (Bogard). The novella takes place in the South during the 1800’s when societal views and appearances meant everything. There were numerous rules and expectations that must be upheld by both men and women, and for independent, stubborn, and curious women such as Edna, this made life challenging. Edna expressed thoughts and goals far beyond her time that made her question her role in life and struggle to identify herself, which caused her to break societal conventions, damage her relationships, and ultimately lose everything.
It is the contention of this paper that humans are born neutral, and if we are raised to be good, we will mature into good human beings. Once the element of evil is introduced into our minds, through socialization and the media, we then have the potential to do bad things. As a person grows up, they are ideally taught to be good and to do good things, but it is possible that the concept of evil can be presented to us. When this happens, we subconsciously choose whether or not to accept this evil. This is where the theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke become interesting as both men differed in the way they believed human nature to be.
...involving the confrontation between the mother and her son, Julian seizes the opportunity to berate his mother so she can see how ignorant she is and how he has elevated himself to a status higher than hers. Tragically, this incident leads to his mother’s stroke. It is only at this moment of his mother’s helplessness that all three worlds collide together. Julian’s world of self-righteousness and his mother’s world of self-importance are shattered by the world of reality. Only then is truth apparent to all of the characters in the story.
... sins, but she can’t take back what she did so she will forever have blood on her hands. This guilt and all of the lies she has told is giving her true trepidation and in the end she decided to end her terror by taking her life.
...ut men, family ties and financial stability would be difficult to obtain, which were necessary to secure an identity in the early south. Early Southern women were ultimately forced to identify themselves by the males to which they were tied. Three female characters from the works read thus far, struggled without men to identify them. For Désirée, her past and family heritage proved too much to overcome. Without the surname provided by her husband, Désirée was without an identity to call her own and gave way to societal code. Yet, due to their internal fight for self-satisfaction, Lena and Janie were able to overcome their lack of identity by establishing their own without the aid of a male. In conclusion, identity is attainable for some women. However, it takes a Southern woman dedicated to her own beliefs to overcome such obstacles and return stronger than before.
In the South, a person’s identity is a critical factor in determining who he or she is as a person as well as their part in society, much like in the novel Bastard out of Carolina. To understand a person’s identity, Thompson and Walsh gave the definition of a “fluid process” rather than a person’s “fixed” personality (380). Therefore, identity is self-based on choices people make as well as what they go through. Identity also evolves as people mature while numerous factors affect a person’s identity. It is through this novel that the readers will understand how the affects of sexual child abuse force children to negatively alter their identity based on a traumatic experience.
Her mother and her lover, both glad to her take her in to clean up and rest, but before the day’s end her mother tells her she needs to return to her father. Fully aware of the extent of her ex-husband 's brutality she still insists that her own daughter must go back for fear of prosecution by lawyers. Nieve sums up the emotional betrayal by her mother “After my mom covered me with kisses and hugged me tight, she said that if the lawyers didn 't give her permission, she couldn’t let me stay the night because she’d sign a paper that very clearly said she wouldn’t do that. Never in my life did I imagine I’d ever hear my mother say something like that” (75).This statement shattered Nieve’s hopeful view of her mother as her saviour. And with this betrayal she began the learn the true nature of man’s fear and strength. At the age of just nine, she had no trust in her parents, she only had herself. Shortly after this blow, agents of the CDR take Nieve to an orphanage disgussed as a boarding school. Her mother and father again battle for custody of Nieve, but as far as Nieve is concerned, she is an orphan. This point of view is shared by Nieve when her mom comes to discuss Nieve’s potential adoption “Norma is the woman who wants to adopt me. My mother was ashamed because she never imagined the school would ever ask her to come in to talk about such a thing. ‘How can a girl
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.
Whether we know it or not we all develop a sense of personal identity throughout our lives. Personal identity is the development of the way you view yourself as well as the way you want others to perceive you over the course of your life. For some people this may be more difficult than others because developing a sense of personal identity can be a lifelong journey whereas for others it can be as simple as getting through a certain situation and then realizing what you’re capable of. Personal identity crises not only occur in real life with everyday people but also in works of literature as well since they depict characters or speakers who struggle with the concept of personal identity. Examples of works of literature that
“Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. From these contraries spring what the religious call Good & Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell,”