Loss Of Personal Identity In The Heavenly Christmas Tree

“Here was another street—oh, what a wide one, here he would be run over for certain; how everyone was shouting, racing and driving along, and the light, the light!”(excerpts from ‘The Heavenly Christmas Tree’ by Fyodor Doystoyevsky)

Franz Roh, a German critic, first coined and considered magic realism in the art category (Moore, 2012). On one hand, magic realism as defined by Encyclopedia Brittanica (cited 2016), is ‘characterized by matter-of-fact inclusion of fantasy or mythical elements into fiction’. On the other hand, Random House Dictionary defines magic realism as ‘a style of painting and literature in which fantastic or imaginary and often unsettling images or events are depicted in a sharp, detailed, realistic manner’ (Sahagian, 2015).

Contextually, personal identity describes how an individual is known and will be known for. In human beings, striving to have a desirable identity yearns importance, entailing power and making history. Consequently, identity enables to make difference and significance. Death, on the other hand, is losing an individual’s identity. It explains the reason of an individual’s fear of death. However, a recognized individual will not lose his personal identity rather make history. In turn, it makes an individual remembered even after death. Historically, various names made difference and constantly honored until now. These individuals are known for what they have done or what they were. For example, the South African activist and fallen president Nelson Mandela who became an advocate for democracy, peace, freedom, and social justice by fighting against racism. In commemoration, the United Nations declared July 18 as “Nelson Mandela International Day” (A&E Television Networks, 2013).Heroism resulted to persistence of his personal identity. On the other hand, a German “Nazi” leader and military dictator, Adolf Hitler made history by prompting the World War II. Hitler was remembered by his dreadful conduct, killing 11 million of people specifically the Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, disabled, twins, and communists through The Holocaust (Rosenberg, 2015). It renounces

It defines the mortality of an individual. It is the time when the human being has ended the actuality and continuum of life. Mainly, human beings have their own fear of death. Even the name itself already causes anguish. Some of the reasons behind these fears were mostly because human beings are terrified of the “unknown” and afraid to leave their loved ones here on the land of the living. On one hand, Francis Bacon once stated, “Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other”. On the other hand, Bernard Williams and Victor Frankl claimed that it is death that allows meaning to be put in