I Agree With Aarvik 's Comment

How you ever experienced something really distressing that it changes your life and identity? Identity is the fact of being who or what a person or thing is. In the book, Night by Elie Wiesel tells about his hardships and deprivation during the holocaust. Six million Jews have died from that event. Traumatic experiences affect one’s identity because it changes the way you look at the world and your perspective is different.

Every year I look back on the previous and I see how much I have changed. I see the friends I have gained and lost. The heartbreak and the happiness. Despite how rough times have gotten, it has truly made me stronger. Everything has shaped who I am today, it has shaped my identity. Identity is a complex topic because it consists of changeable and unchangeable traits and outside internal influences; my own identity has been shaped by going from private to public school, young life camp, and my current friends.

The relationship you have with others often has a direct effect on the basis of your very own personal identity. In the essay "On The Rainy River," the author Tim O'Brien tells about his experiences and how his relationship with a single person had affected his life so dramatically. It is hard for anyone to rely fully on their own personal experiences when there are so many other people out there with different experiences of their own. Sometimes it takes the experiences and knowledge of others to help you learn and build from them to help form your own personal identity. In the essay, O'Brien speaks about his experiences with a man by the name of Elroy Berdahl, the owner of the fishing lodges that O'Brien stays on while on how journey to find himself. The experiences O'Brien has while there helps him to open his mind and realize what his true personal identity was. It gives you a sense than our own personal identities are built on the relationships we have with others. There are many influences out there such as our family and friends. Sometimes even groups of people such as others of our nationality and religion have a space in building our personal identities.

When it comes to issues that arise that can potentially destroy life as we know it, issues like mass genocide, terrorism, and abuse of power, indifference will lead to the ultimate demise our most simple human characteristic, humility. Denoted as the lack of difference or distinction between two or more things, indifference is the worst response. Not only are you empowering the oppressor and giving them the green light by not checking their actions but you are saying to the oppressed, “Your cries of pain are not heard.” Holocaust Survivor, Elie Wiesel graced an audience with his April 12, 1999 White House Millennium Lecture entitled, “The Perils of Indifference.” Many people hide behind the vail of the bystander effect theory, which is commonly

A wise Ethiopian ruler, Haile Selassie, once said “throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph”. Throughout millennia, despite many differences in language, cultural, and social structures, humans all developed the same characteristics in their approach in tragedies happening around the world. When responding to tragedies, humans can either be aghast, furious, and eager to do whatever they can to help or they can be in support of the people who caused the tragedy. However, there is one response that is arguably worse than the latter: being

As George R.R. Martin once stated, “Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you” (“Quotes About Identity”, 2017). In the short stories, David Goes to the Reserve, and Compatriots, characters struggle with their sense of identity. Some know who they are, but lack the knowledge of who they want to be; while others do not perceive any identity, but know they can be so much more. To find their true selves, the characters have to confront and overcome the obstacles that hindered them in the past.

A wise, Ethiopian Ruler by the name of Haile Selassie once said that “throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph” Throughout millennia, despite many differences in language, cultural, and social structures, humans all developed the same characteristics like, for one; their approach in tragedies happening around the world. When responding to tragedies, humans can either be aghast, furious, and eager to do whatever they can to help or they can be in support of the people who caused the tragedy. However, there is one response that is arguably worse

In life, one goes through different experiences which makes and shapes us into the person who we become. Whether something as little as a "hello" by a crush or a death in a family, they contribute to the difference, as they are all equal in importance. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the protagonist Hamlet struggles throughout his life as he is in search of his true identity. The Webster's dictionary, under the second definition, defines identity as "The set of behavioral or personal characteristics by which an individual is recognizable as a member of a group." As life only moves forward for Hamlet, he struggles to find his place in life, nonetheless to revenge the murder of his father.

As we look into the Srebrenica Genocide of 1995, what Wiesel conveys in his speech, “The Perils of Indifference” becomes clearer and more relevant than ever. Wiesel makes it clear that indifference is capable of causing inhumanity because we find it so much easier to ignore “another person’s pain and despair” as long as it doesn’t interrupt our life. In just a month 8,000 Bosnians were killed, this became known as the Srebrenica Genocide. The world did not react.  The Srebrenica Genocide, which occured in 1995, caused the death of approximately over 100,000 people. This was the beginning of the “ethnic cleansings that characterized the atrocities of the Yugoslav wars.” (The Bosnian War) The world was just watching, they wanted “ to avoid the moral responsibilities of responding to a genocide” so they chose to think of it as an “ethnic cleansing” rather than a “genocide.” (The Bosnian War) This horrible act of inhumanity is a result of indifference, it has been one of the worst act of genocides since the nazis’ destruction of over 6 million Jews during World

A quote from Albert Einstein states “the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything”. As difficult as it is to describe the terrible deeds of those who were part of the Holocaust, it is true that those who did nothing are at fault just as much as those who carried out the actions. When one thinks of the Holocaust today it is difficult to picture that such events were done by human beings. Societies have advanced but it is important to acknowledge the reason as to why many bystanders refused to help or why they were so indifferent to the pain felt by the Jews. “The psychological mechanisms used to come to terms with the suffering of another appear to be very similar, whether the person is standing right before us or is 2,000 miles away. (Barnet:118) Barnett explains that ideological and moral principles also come into play, as do self-interest and the weighing of the possible consequences of our actions. We try to establish what is or is not possible. In the end, our decision will be determined not so much by whether we actually have the power to change a situation, but whether we have the will to do so. (Barnett, 118). In the case of many of the individuals who chose to become bystanders rather than change the situation they were not willing to get involved. Although not every German was a bystander, those who

Outside influences have a strong capability to influence and alter our personal identity. Both directly and indirectly, the social contexts in which we live can change the way we think and feel, and by extension how we interact with other people and places. Immediate family, friendship groups and the physical environment are all factors which contribute to our ever changing perceptions of ourselves. Sometimes personal identity can be subtly reshaped over a gradual time frame, as our sense of who we are is modified without personal recognition that we are changing. At other times we may be able to notice our personal identity changing, through important life decisions.

There is many things that shape identity big things and small things such as family, religion or even random people they have met in public. For example Juliet wouldn't be the same without her parents she would be alive and would have never met Romeo. One of the biggest things that shape someone's identity is life experiences, whether it's if you lost your dad or met an amazing person life experiences are a huge factor in shaping one's identity.

What is the an experience that changed your life, these people learned about themselves from experience. Identity means, The fact of being who or what a person or thing is. Individuals learn about themselves through experience. One story that individuals learn from themselves is from “Flowers and Freckle Cream”. This story is about a girl named Elizabeth who tries to change her looks by getting rid of her freckles.

Who I am? Personally, I believe that a person’s identity can take only one of two routes. One, a person’s identity can change within that person’s life. Who I am now, is not necessarily who I was when I was younger. Experience can and will likely modify our identities. Therefore, experience can solidify our personal identification or it can weaken our personal identification. And as such, individuals and their perspectives are always evolving, or at the very least, they should evolve over time. Although there are some identities that evolve throughout one’s lifetime; there are some identities that remain consistent. Two, some identities cannot and will not change. So identities are socially and/or politically forces upon you, some identities are genetically assigned to you, and some you choose to keep. No matter the reason or reasons, these identities have been and will be consist within your lifespan. But, how you deal with them is up to you as an individual.

What makes your identity? Is it your past, your family, your hopes, dreams, fears? It is all that and more. Your identity makes up who you are. It is always growing and ever-changing. Your identity is what makes you human. Finding it can be a struggle, maintaining it can be even harder. Katniss and Peeta in The Hunger Games were two examples of finding and holding onto your identity. Katniss was the girl who had to grow up to fast. She had to learn how to provide for her family, to be strong. Katniss thought to do this she had to create a wall to hold back all the childish things that were apart her. She put on a mask to grow up but to also protect herself from those who would wish to abuse her innocence. The mask, the wall they kept her