Introduction:
Identity is the foundation in which people view themselves. It acts as the way that people know who they are and what they stand for. A person begins to define who they are using various outlets and experiences. It could be from personally experiencing and event to just reading about something. Development of an identity can be seen through different circumstances. These circumstances act as the system people use to define themselves and groups. Circumstances include but are not limited to concepts such as race, religion, culture, language, sexual orientation, and class. Without these experiences, people would not be able to recognize internal and external environments. Multiple circumstances are taken into consideration when a person defines their identity. The situation determines how the identity will be shown. These stories all are permeated with a lot of real life situations and experiences which are very much to the heart of the matter.
Argument:
In Witness, Andre Dubus re-establishes his identity after a car accident. Struggling with the aftershock of his sister being raped, Dubus dealt with long-standing emotional turmoil. One can only imagine the amount of change to deal with. His relationship to his family changed the way he identified with people outside. In the accident, Dubus was struck by a car while trying to help two stranded people. During hospitalization, one of his legs had to be amputated and the other was damaged beyond repair. Dubus then began to view life from a mobility standpoint.
Dubus became strained by the pressures of life. The accident changed the way he identified to the world. Ebbing pain and mobility became his solace, companion, and object of his life. It changed the way he saw himself as a father and human. The pain and mobility effected the way he related to his daughters. He would spend a lot of time on the phone with them. Upon meeting a woman that witnessed his accident and saved his life, Dubus found a new sense of peace in the world. The woman and her family left a great impression on Dubus. While he wanted to ask more in-depth about the accident for personal clarity, he didn't ask. Instead he continued on in his usual manner for Thursdays. The witness gave Dubus a way to positively see himself and the world. Writing about the accident created another outlet for further internal healing for Dubus.
A Boy to Be Sacrificed delved into overlapping circumstances of culture, religion, class, and sexual orientation. Abdellah Taia describes life as young effeminate Arab boy growing up in impoverished Morocco. Taia states that people's believe in his femininity influenced the way he viewed himself. Homosexual boys were treated as filth and used however others wanted. In the story this equates to young boys becoming a sexual instrument for men. Men could then do whatever they wanted and take their frustrations out on the boy.
Identity can be based off of religious beliefs as well. Religion gives people direction in order to achieve a level of happiness. Some beliefs can transcend various circumstances. In Adbellah's case, the Islamic faith created a path in which he should follow. It is believed that God or Allah does not favor homosexuality. People disdain that concept and act according to social situation. This would explain why Taia's older brother did not speak up for Taia when the drunken men came to the house to have sex. Taia explains that his Islamic beliefs changed based off of his supposed sexual orientation. He states, "God did not love me. I strayed from the path. Or so I was made to understand" (Taia, 1).
Taia did a great job of showing the interconnectedness of circumstances that people identify. His gender identity shifted because of his mannerisms. While his religious identity didn't change, Taia's position in his beliefs changed. It would also seem as though his stance in being Arab was better understood. This could be done realizing that Arabs in different locations have something unique to their group. Adbellah shows that many Arab homosexuals go through horrible situations. Many of times, they are put into the situations forcefully. A Boy To Be Sacrificed acts a mirror for Taia to face his inner femininity and childhood “Homosexuals are anathema to Arabs and the pubishments meted out to these are very severe” (Abdellah 4).
In No Name Woman Maxine Hong Kingston struggled with nationality, race, and womanhood. She opens dialogue about the influence that nationality has on personal identity. Kingston discusses her identity as a Chinese-American. Living with her parents she had to deal with Chinese customs and beliefs in an American environment. In Kingston's mind, China represented a land filled with oppression of people's privacy. Things were always about finding the balance between two opposing forces. This was manifested thorough her inability to talk about her aunt, duties to the family, lustfulness, and customs. Kingston sees that in American culture, there is much more freedom and privacy then China. “We are not free in China and that is very much part and parcel of our lives”, (Kingston p 2)
Much of Kingston's thoughts of being Chinese were based off of her families' beliefs and behaviors. There seems to be a lot of identity searching due to this statement, "when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese, how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty, insanities, one family, your mother who marked your growing with stories, from what is Chinese" (Hong Kingston, 3). In this case the narrator grew to understand herself as a Chinese person.
On a different spectrum Kingston grew to understand herself as a woman through the experience of her forgotten aunt. When acting on sexual desire, her aunt became pregnant. The village people raided the home and caused the aunt to go into labor. Because of the existence she believed she and the child would have, the aunt decided to kill herself and the baby. This was used toward Kingston as a method of control herself as a woman for the "good" of the family.
Conclusion:
Through analyzing different experiences, people are able to make a decision based off of what they feel to be right. Identity is not made of one specific circumstance, but various levels of experience. It is an individual stance on those different experiences. Each of the stories for the class readings look to establish personal identity in the subject. Establishing a sense of identity may be seen through the use of words, beliefs, or actions. Dubus grew to know himself by meeting a witness to his accident. Taia shaped his life around other's opinions of his sexuality. Kingston uses her nameless aunt to further understand who she is. All of these stories are focused on the narrator overcoming an obstacle or learning a lesson. However the stories are also very much part and parcel of wordly experiences without much hope for the future in this respect.
Experience gives people the ability to analyze their internal and external environments. This leads to a person understanding what beliefs and ideas they hold dear. It sets the set for creation of an identity. Various circumstances help mold an individual to think certain ways about the way that they relate to the world. In the readings, these events lead to the narrators understanding different aspects their individual identity.
Works Cited:
Taia, Adbellah. A Boy to Be Sacrificed. 2012.
Hong Kingston, Maxine. No Name Woman. 1970.
Dubus, Andre. Witness. 1997.
