Novels often explore the idea of identity and the self through major characters, plot points and symbols. Characters from this year's novels approach the idea of identity in different yet similar lights as some have double identities, some lose theirs and others come to terms with who they “truly” are. Through the seminar, the novels read this year were picked and pulled at as classmates hoped to find how characters achieved their identity or arrived at their true selves. Though numerous aspects of self discovery were touched on during the discussion, the idea of learning to live with or without an identity is what helped to further my understanding of this essential question of arrival and achievement. Artists in But Beautiful by Geoff Dyer …show more content…
Joel brought up that the “moors in Wuthering Heights are like the forest in The Scarlet Letter”. This is very true as both the moors and the forest serve as the wild side of the society that the characters live in. For the moors, they symbolize one of Catherine’s identities. As Tati explained “Catherine is living a double identity”. Her mischievous side that Heathcliff shares with her is shown in the moors while her proper side is shown in her life at Thrushcross Grange with Edgar. In the forest, Hester can escape the harsh and dull world of Puritan Boston. No one can look down on her as an adulterer when she is in the forest, yet the A is still engraved on her bosom. Both of these double identities relate to this idea of losing or gaining one. Because Catherine has two sides to her, Heathcliff must learn to live without her while Hester learns to accept her A whether she is in the town or in the forest. To compare the novels even further, Maya pointed out that Geryon in The Autobiography of Red “can be seen as a walking forest” and therefore maybe a walking version of the moors. He does not necessarily live a double identity yet he, like Catherine and Hester, finds comfort in being free and taking his own and independent journey through …show more content…
In Let the Great World Spin, Claire loses her son yet as Isabelle points out “she begins to find herself through other people” as she “discovers the backstory of Jazzlyn and Corrigan”. This idea complicates numerous other stories as Heathcliff does seem to discover himself in Catherine yet that very connection is what destroys him and “Geryon comes out a changed person after he meets Herakles” as Owen remarked. This asks the question of whether someone can arrive at their identity through the help of other people or if the part of their identity that was lost was too much apart of them. The artists in But Beautiful seem to prove the latter as most of them could not be saved when they lost their musical gift. These connections of loss and possible gain from others further helps us understand what identity means to different people and to what extent it can be accepted when an aspect of one’s self is no longer
In “Fault Lines” (1993), Meena Alexander’s autobiography utilizes multiple examples of rhetorical devices to describe her sense of identity, or more importantly, the shattered pieces of herself. She describes this process by comparing and contrasting the aspects of who she is as a person as opposed to what she once dreamed to be. She wrote her story to explain how hard her journey was in order to express how much it took out of her as a person “What might it mean to look at myself straight, see myself?”. (3) Her ambivalent tone can be targeted towards those who are still trying to figure out their sense of identities themselves, and how much it takes for a person to question themselves to find out who they are.
There are many factors that lead to the development of an individual’s identity. Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” illustrates an extreme change in Gregor Samsa’s external identity and the overall outward effect it has on the development of his family. While James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” illustrates a young man struggling to find his identity while being pushed around by what society and his family wants him to be. Both of these characters exhibit an underlying struggle of alienation but both also demonstrate a craving for belongingness. This conflict of trying to belong to something as well as satisfying the needs of society, has directly impacted their own individuality and the lives of the people around them.
According to the Merriam Webster, identity is the “sameness of essential or generic character in different instances” (Merriam Webster). An identity can be the qualities or beliefs that make a person different from another, but it is also the thing that connects them. A man’s identity stays with him “for the rest of his life” and is something that “[can] not change much” (O’Hara 202, 193). Identity is who one is born to, what one thinks, what one says, and what one does; John O’Hara and F. Scott Fitzgerald both utilize the theme of identity in describing the lives and actions of the central characters Julian English and Dick Diver in their novels, Appointment in Samarra and Tender is the Night. Discovering their individual identities is a journey for both men, and on their journey to self-discovery the men believe that by fixing their lives they will discover their identity. Both Julian and Dick struggle to maintain perfect order in their lives by controlling fate, but their ancestral obligations lead to self-destruction and inevitable downfall. While Diver commits social suicide, English commits actual suicide, and the two seal their fates the second they try to change their journey. Sigmund Freud’s Oedipus complex is a feeling of sexual attracting of a child toward their parent; the fixation towards one’s father or mother can lead to choices of sexual partners or spouses that resemble the parent. The wives of Julian English and Dick Diver, Caroline and Nicole, marry their husbands because of their fatherly personas, and Caroline and Nicole’s own incestuous pasts shape and control their relationships with Julian and Dick. The superficiality of English and Diver and their inability to realize who they are lead to a need to contro...
In Angela Carter’s collections of short stories Saints and Strangers (1985) and The Bloody Chamber (1979) the heroines of each story’s identity plays a role in the psychological position the characters become manipulated into by the villain or antagonist in each story. Many of the stories in The Bloody Chamber focus on the idea of liminality. By this, the heroines exhibit qualities of personalities in both states of being simultaneously, meaning their identities are being tested and manipulated. These two halves of the liminal being will tear at each other so that one can dominate over the other, because the contradicting identities can’t seem to co-exist while being whole. In one of the more significant short stories from Saints and Strangers, The Fall River Axe Murders for example: Lizzie Borden’s identity of being either a sensitive introverted woman versus one of very sociopathic and manipulative traits is being challenged by the boils of nature within her broken family. In The Bloody Chamber, the narrator is a youthful seventeen year old pianist who is transitioning from childhood to womanhood while being constantly challenged by her new husband to disobey him so she can be “punished”. Carter’s writing style is known for it’s ability to bring to light the psychological tug-o-war in which all the characters in her short stories struggle to win against themselves. In both her short story collections Saints and Strangers (1985) and The Bloody Chamber (1979), Carter accentuates the dark foils of the childhood legends and myths with her various styles of incorporating how the liminality of one’s identity plays a role into revealing the psychological entities of the charac...
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.”
In his Enigmas of Identity, Peter Brooks describes the “transactional nature of the self,” where individual identity is created through its relationship with others (Brooks 23). Identity is forged through “transpersonal networks”, moving beyond the individual or the personal (23). Identity is not static, but a continuous “project,” asking in what ways one stays the same, changes and grows (15). In Arthur Conan Doyle’ “A Scandal in Bohemia,” Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” identity and its transactional, malleable nature play a significant role. In each narrative, the identities of those protagonists hold shape shifting capabilities, and mistaken or lost individual identities are major themes.
Identity is an important theme in many stories. Especially in the The Outsiders, Eleanor and Park, and“Flowers for Algernon.” In The Outsiders identity is tied heavily to which gang a person belongs to. In the novel, Eleanor and Park, identity is portrayed through gender and race. Also, in the short story, “Flowers for Algernon,” the main character identifies with his level of intelligence. Although, one common trend expressed is how jubilance is felt when the characters are free of how they are told they should identify. I will be analysing identity in these stories is represented through the characters, and how this proves how easily the characters find identify in themselves when they detach how they are to identify by society.
One of the biggest fears in today's world is the idea of not fitting into society. Evan Hunter's story “On the Sidewalk Bleeding,” explores the theme of the importance of personal identity. This will be shown through an analysis of how external reality plays a critical role in defining who people are, how personal identity is a crucial aspect of how individuals grow and the fact that no matter how hard you try, you can never erase the troubles of your past. One aspect of identity that is evident in Hunter's story is how external reality plays a critical role in defining who people are. While individuals may wish to be many things, the world plays a role in who people are and how people perceive others.
It should be noted that gaining an identity in autobiographical writing is crucial “because literacy becomes a way of creating an identity where before there was none in the public discourse” (Finkelman, vol.2, 190). Although the identities of William and Ellen Craft may have been revealed partially before their narrative, their own words and experience have a much greater impact on the reader than if told by a secondary source.
As Alice Walker shows Dee’s idea of her own culture, heritage, and identity and how it changes though the progression of her life. With every new experience, Dee discover more about her identity. This is important because identity helps to shape and cultivate a person’s personality and actions in their life time. When growing older one discovers more about one’s self.
One’s identity is the most important lesson to be learned. It is vital part of life knowing who you are in order to live a fulfilled life. Without knowing your identity, and the way you perceive life, it is difficult for others to understand you, along with a struggle to live a happy life. In Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar,” Esther Greenwood struggles to find her own identity, and in the process, she develops a mental illness which helps her discover the person she is on the inside.
There is no single criterion that provides a necessary basis for identity, and neither is there a threshold, a critical mass of sufficient conditions. It is possible to assume that because “a” happened to a person, and “b” happened to the same person that he or she is a “c”-type person; however, it’s impossible to make up a definition which covers all that there is about identity. In the novel I am a Martinican Woman by Mayotte Capecia, the reader sees the main character, Mayotte, hopelessly striving to find a static definition of her identity. Mayotte has a need to feel anchored in something that she can define herself as, yet at the very same time, she feels torn between who she is and what she needs in life. These contrasting feelings only lead to the exaggeration of Mayotte’s emotions through her thoughts and actions, and her lack of identity becomes magnified to the reader. By analyzing the theme of racial identity and the strong presence of patriarchal structures within the Martinican society, one is able to see the difficulty in Mayotte finding a separate identity for herself.
have not realized the significance of identity and the ways values are affecting them. Regardless of this, individuals who struggle with their identity have taken action to protect themselves. When one is in question about one’s identity, they must evaluate the morals and beliefs that they carry to form their identity and build it to become bolder. Some have experiences from which they learn while other may not have had opportunities. Through literature many learn about other’s experiences and assess what they have valued and whether it is part of their identity. Unlike many, I have experienced and assimilated to my identity. Literature teaches us the value that holds in our identity. To many individuals literature helps find specific values that they have not realized before, for me literature taught me to appreciate my identity.
Finding your identity and self-worth can get difficult sometimes. It takes time to realize your worth.Your self-identity is the way you view yourself, and the relationship you have with the world and the American society. Identity basically identifies who you are, where you are from, and most of all, who you want to become. As an African American woman, I was often tempted by the society to do greater than the rest of the ethnic groups. Because back then we didn’t have the right to do anything. We only had the option of being a housewife or a slave. The readings that were covered this semester, perceived self-identity. Each character in the novels confronted self-identity issues to find their true self, and their inner being. It took a while
Pain and suffering, when viewed through the lens of literature, are transformative forces that expose an individual's true identity. True identity is a complex concept encompassing various aspects of being. It involves the combination of personality traits, beliefs, emotions, and relationships. This is illuminated throughout Life of Pi by Yann Martel and Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut. These works present the idea that the limitations imposed on abilities create pain and suffering, substantially influencing and redefining one's identity.