Personal Identity In John Stewart's Bridges Not Walls

Every type of person struggles with a thing we call, identity. Personal identity come from multiple factors from our race to our own personal beliefs. Some people say we have the choice to choose our own identity, but is that always true? No, in fact other people can affect how we look and essentially identity our self’s. In the article called.

Identity. Fluid like water, it can change or grow at any moment. Every individual has a unique set of influential people, places, and experiences that formed their identities. The impact outside factors can have on one 's identity is demonstrated through the memoirs Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam, Jr., and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.

The Question of Identity According to Shahram Heshmat, author of “Basics of Identity”, “Identity is concerned largely with the question: “Who are you?” What does it mean to be who you are? Identity relates to our basic values that dictate the choices we make…”. But sometime within every human being’s life, a situation arises where someone is not able to identify themselves, and because of this they can act strangely and sometimes hostile.

Comparing Identities “In the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity.” --Erik Erickson. One’s identity is shown by their actions, thoughts, and where they place themselves in society. In the short stories “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” by Evan Hunter, “Why Weren’t You His Friends?”

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment” (Ralph Waldo Emerson). Emerson suggests that humans are living in a world in which humanity is constantly attempting to change individuals. Society tries to change humans identities, but a human’s identity is what allows them to express themselves and distinguish themselves from others. Human nature is supposed to look, act and think differently, and, when humans are very similar it becomes difficult to interact and get along with others. A time that preserving identity becomes notably challenging is during times of crisis.

People throughout their lives are constantly discovering who they are and who they want to grow into. The same statement accurately describes Maya Johnson, a strong woman who wrote about her life in her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. As a little girl, her mother’s ex-boyfriend raped and she had to rediscover herself whilst navigating through the grim veil of trauma - a process that burdened her for many years. Throughout her life, she encountered many different people, some good, others bad, but they each helped her eventually discover her identity. ‘Identity’ is how people define themselves as a human being, and, therefore, nobody else can dictate it.

William Shakespeare once said, "To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man. " Dating back to Elizabethan Literature, self-identity has always been deemed as essential. Fast forward to modern times, the authors of more contemporary works have taken the same concept of identity but have revealed the way actions taken can influence an individual 's understanding of themselves. For example, in John Howard Griffin 's memoir, Black Like Me and Wes Moore 's memoir, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates were both authors encounter lifestyles of similar individuals.

The environment in which an individual grows up in can affect life greatly. Our surroundings influence one’s personality, self-expression, and individuality, otherwise known as identity. Finding one’s true self is the most grueling stage of life and expectations of family and society make the process even harder. One’s true identity can sometimes clash with hopes of others, thus breaking tradition and/or family ties. Pressure to change will always be present, but staying true to uniqueness will prevail.

How others see you is influenced by material, social, and physical constraints. This causes a tension between how much control you have in constructing your own identity and how much control or constraint is exercised over you. How we see ourselves and how others see us differ in many ways, but is an important factor of our identity. “A Lesson Before Dying”,

The identity a person holds is one of the most important aspects of their lives. Identity is what distinguishes people from others, although it leaves a negative stereotype upon people. In the short story Identities by W.D Valgardson, a middle-aged wealthy man finds himself lost in a rough neighborhood while attempting to look for something new. The author employs many elements in the story, some of the more important ones being stereotype and foreshadow. For many people, their personal identity is stereotyped by society.

Self-identity through self-acceptance

This topic can be easily translated into real life because everyone has their own journey to discover their self identity and if they can become something more and this book shows how one can accomplish that. Nancy Farmer creates the pursuit of self-identity in the

Identity, who “we” are, defines “us” as individual beings. Every person is different and unique, but as a person born in the generation where technology deeply impacts the lives of both people who does and people who does not use it, I firmly believe that we are losing our individuality little by little. However, I still have many more chances to redeem and continue to discover myself even more. Through many experiences, I have found that some of my identity is shaped by education, family and my image. Additionally, education has given me a chance to take a moment to think about my identity and connect it with texts such as, “Women,” by Alice Walker, ”Papa Who Wakes Tired in the Dark,” by Sandra Cisneros, and “Same Song,” by Pat Mora.

Finding one's identity is probably the hardest of all things to do because as humans critiquing is what comes naturally, but most of the time the flaws that are found are directed towards a another person. In a world that is constantly saying “don’t judge yourself” we are forgetting one thing: in order to change the world one must first change themselves. They have to discover their flaws, their positive sides, and their negative sides. This has the potential to be either a very scary thing, or a very eye-opening moment. It takes courage to find a person's true identity because sometimes the findings are not always desirable.

As I mature, my perspective of life and what it is to be a unique individual is ever changing. I believe that an individual’s environmental and surrounding contributes to their identity greatly. The culture in which one grows up in is a element that shapes one’s beliefs. When I was younger, my friends aided to shape my identity. My peers had a great influence on how I defined myself in early childhood because I deeply valued and cared about what others thought of me.