Mirror Images: Twins And Identity Essay

How would one feel if he was not considered himself? How would one feel if he was forced to share an identity with someone else because of the presumptuous stereotypes society has on him? In Scientific American’s “Mirror Images: Twins and Identity,” author David Manly attacks the concept that identical twins are the same person. He uses his bona fide experience of being a twin, and how he had to craft a separate identity from someone who mirrored himself, to craft his topic for his blog. Going forth, he discusses the stereotype that society presses onto twins, the stereotype that twins think, act, and like things similarly. Briefly, Manly informs the audience about the sciences of identity, revealing typical practices of parents of twins to keep their children separate, and how it affects the twins in the long run. David Manly wrote this piece in a statement to inform “singletons” (people who are not twins) that twins are not the same person. They are individuals just like everyone else. He means to educate an audience of singletons and twins on the complexities of being and living as a

Within his blog, Manly uses the experiences of other twins to strengthen his argument. His twin brother Daniel says: “‘I remember one girl in grade four, who used to tell us apart by the colour of our lunchboxes! That stuff is ridiculous, since the easiest way to tell us apart is to know us.’” I believe what Daniel says is true. Singletons should take the time to know each twin individually, instead of knowing a set of twins as one person. Manly states that this confusion on which twin is who often leads to a difficult environment for individuality to develop. I agree to this as well. In my own experience of being a twin, I have struggled to become myself with my peers, since I am constantly referred to as “one of the twins” or “a