Essay on Belk - the Extended Self Concept

Humans struggle their entire lives to find affection that satisfies them. We assign this affection to objects that we obtain throughout our lives. An engagement ring, for example, is a large meaning attached to a small object. While it still has quite a high expense, women care more about the man who it’s from than the store, well, hopefully. In Akiko Busch’s story The Uncommon Life of Common Objects, she explores the objects her two sons, and people in general, become attached to over time. There’s a certain box she brings up and says “Sometimes the little box had value, sometimes it had none, and its worth seemed to come and go, by pure chance” (1). She discusses why certain things are worth more than others and why certain things have more

Self image – represents the consciousness of the person’s objectives and personal skills, as well as the good and bad of things of himself, (Piotrowski, 2005). Example: Mary is

Anywhere in the world, someone acquires something, whether it be money, a car, or even an idea. We can “own” many intangible and tangible items in life, but how does ownership relate to a sense and development of self? This question has been constantly answered for centuries through intelligent people like Plato, Aristotle, and Jean-Paul Sartre. However, the question has received no agreeable answer. In the end, people will agree that there is a strong and positive relationship between ownership and a sense of self because the things you own will define and develop who you are positively by exhibiting what you like, what you can and cannot do, and in the end, characterizes you, as long as you use the things you own properly.

The artifact represents personal objects and meaningful moments, person influence on our own life. This is one of the assignment in our program to share our artifacts toward our colleagues and professors. This will take in more about different culture, uniqueness, identity and values of our schoolmates and how they reflected in their life.

Such possessions are utilized in a competitive manner in order to display status and values “Whom we invite to dinner affects who marries whom, which then affects who inherits what, which affects whose children get a head start” (76). This reinforces the existence of social class and capitalism in the sense that bodies are used as machines to work and eventually gain money to spend it on objects that seems to impress people on the surface, but in reality it only validates the person’s status and social class. Using my family home as an example, each room is designed to host different kinds of guests for certain occasions. No guest will ever be situated in the family’s living room for the reason that the wood design on the walls, the green velvet couches, the simple picture frames and the fact that it is directly open to the kitchen does not scream fancy, but comfort instead. For that, the guests are always welcomed in the fancy guest room, which has the fancy purple couches that are perfectly suited with the expensive silver accessories, the silver vases that contains the weekly rearranged black flowers and the displaced silver see-through cabinets that contains the finest chinas, crystals and silverware. In addition, some people in the Middle East still hold on to their culture, and as a result, some guests prefer to

Anywhere in the world, someone acquires something, whether it be money, a car, or even an idea. We can “own” many intangible and tangible items in life, but how does ownership relate to a sense of self? This question has been constantly answered for centuries through intelligent people like Plato, Aristotle, and Jean-Paul Sartre. However, the question has received no agreeable answer. In the end, people will agree that there is a strong and positive relationship between ownership and a sense of self because the things you own will define and develop who you are positively by exhibiting what you like, what you can and cannot do, and in the end, characterizes you, as long as you use the items you own properly.

Merriam-Webster defines the word artifact as something created by human usually for a practical purpose: an object remaining from a particular period. In my family, there aren’t a lot of artifacts, but we do have a special artifact that means a lot to my mom’s side of the family. Similar to the way Brazilians celebrate Brazilian Carnival, in New Orleans, we celebrate Mardi Gras. Celebrating Mardi Gras is my family tradition. But my mom and I haven’t been in years due to school complications and other commitments. Every year when my mom and I miss Mardi Gras we go to the basement and find different Mardi Gras beads, and where them all day.

People hold on to pieces of jewelry, furniture, and other symbolic collectables that is passed through generations. These things can remind a person of a loved one that is seen as being priceless.

Who you are is not defined by what you own, therefore owning objects is not detrimental to one's character and the development of a clear sense of self. However, just because objects are not essential does not mean that ownership of the tangible is taboo. Ideally, you should not be overwhelmed by objects or let them define in, but instead cherish the things that mean the most to you, but do not be tied down to meaningless things because what you own or don't own doesn't characterize your true self. What defines me are intangible ideas which include my core values, my beliefs, my knowledge, my true character, my personal experience and how I contribute and what I give to my community.

Now, let’s be honest. Kids living in this generation can’t stand not owning things that they want. That is not all that surprising as it can be proven through the essay, “The Tyranny of Things” by Woodbridge Morris. Woodbridge Morris proves the point that over consuming can lead to addiction and that addiction can change people’s everything. The author, Woodbridge Morris, builds an argument to persuade her readers that possessions are oppressive through examples, reasoning, and experiences.

My artifact is brown and black with almost 2 decades’ worth of memories; this object is my stuffed Rottweiler named Max. This artifact, although motionless with four legs, has walked to the moon and back with me as a child full of imagination. This artifact stores the most precious memories and has been with me at every step in my life. Max is very meaningful to me because we have shared many memories, from birth until now. My stuffed animal has been with me through every ups and downs in life, every change that has ever occurred to me, has been a part my past and present; and represents my future.

In immediate self-consciousness the simple ‘I’ is the absolute object which, however, for us or in itself is absolute mediation and has its essential moment lasting independence” (95). Those that relinquish the struggle, however, end up being the slave of external circumstances.

The definition of an artifacts is personal items we utilize to state or reveal our individualities, custom, culture, and heritage.

Sartre then divides things that exist into three kinds: human beings, artifacts, and naturally occurring objects. He declares that human existence precedes essence, that in artifacts essence precedes existence and that in the case of naturally occurring objects existence and essence coincide.

The Self Every situation that an individual is exposed to throughout life, helps mold our “self.” As humans we have the ability to see ourselves from the outside, and all through life we try to see what others see and our “self” revolves around the generalized other. We observe how others perceive us and we make conclusions depending on our observations. How we act around others depends on the image we feel they have towards us.