The Hunt For Identity Analysis

I have been raised in a family whose main hobbies are hunting and fishing, and now they are my most passionate activities. I learned the thrill of hunting at a young age. I am constantly at the deer lease throughout the year, hunting season or not. I have built up interests in more hunting techniques for different animals throughout the years. Every year, I participate in multiple seasons that include dove season, duck season, deer season - bow and rifle season - and more. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to participate in multiple hunting trips across Texas and

Who am I? This question asked so often suggests that there is actually a reasonable answer. Almost as if our own personal being were a fixed thing. Generally, people who ask this type of question are usually struggling with their identity and thus are looking for something to make sense of themselves. The irony is that the more you seek to identify who you are, the more you are exposed to being fragile. Some people spend their live looking for an answer that could possibly satisfy them but still never find anything. The main focus shouldn't be on discovering who you are but on considering the social influences that have affected you.

Recently, the opportunity of a lifetime arose for myself. A distant relative received a coupon for a free guided duck hunt in Arkansas and invited me. This news left me in a state of glee; however, I soon remembered that a friend offered to take me deer hunting on the same weekend. With my friends intentions at heart, I hastily declined his offer to go deer hunting. Although deer hunting is highly appraised, duck hunting far eclipses deer hunting in terms of the harvest, the cleaning, and the comradery.

James McBride has always struggled with his race and identity. Growing up with twelve brothers and sisters, both father figures in his life have passed away, and a white mother in a predominantly black community. In a time where being black is not so good. McBride never had it easy in his life. A lot of tragedy and self-discovery and acceptance had to happen in his life. Growing up in a time where all your heroes are white, in a school where you are just a joke and someone to pick on, and then trying to discover a part of your mother and yourself at the same time.

In the short essay “Why I Hunt” by Rick Bass, the writer gives the reader his personal perspective of what hunting is like for him. Rick Bass goes on to share the story of his family’s move from the hills of Fort Worth, Texas to the very remote Yaak Valley of Montana. The move to this area makes Bass want to hunt more since there is a better variety of prey, and due to everyone that has lived in what Bass calls “the Yaak”, has hunted their entire lives, he feels obligated to do it more than what he did when he lived in Texas (655). In “Why I Hunt, Bass argues that his love for hunting is an enjoyable hobby that develops his imagination and gets him in touch with nature, and that people should put down technology and try hunting. Bass uses imagery to show the beauty of hunting, and pathos to describe his emotions towards hunting.

It was the middle of October, and it was finally time for my long awaited moose hunt. I have waited ever since I was a little girl for this opportunity, and it was finally here. So, my father and I packed up our stuff and left the warmth of Phoenix. We were leaving the "Valley of the Sun" and headed for a place called Wyoming. After two days and fourteen long hours of driving, we made it to our hunting unit.

“Okay Reed, time to go!” My dad shouts from the garage. We had everything prepared and packed to go except for the shotgun. My dad and I have been looking at an area of public hunting land that might be good for hunting all kinds of game. We came to that conclusion after seeing a big pond and deep forests on the map. Today was going to be a day full of short lived excitement and disappointment, and I had no clue.

As a St. James middle school boy, I was all about hunting, even though I hadn’t ever been. My dad, being the awesome guy that he is, said he’d take me if I genuinely wanted to go. Little did I know, my dad had been studying up for this on YouTube because he knew the worst part comes after you shoot a deer and have to clean it. He watched video after video learning how to properly clean a deer before you take it to a shop for it to be processed. The only thing that I knew I wanted to do was shoot a deer!

Hunting is considered one of America’s most famous and traditional past times. Fathers around the nation, with high hopes of teaching their children the ropes, are constantly threatened by the chances of hunting being exterminated. For the average person, this problem isn’t established by the threatening blows made on our constitutional amendments; instead, the main threat for your average hunter revolves around finding areas to carry out this tradition. Unfortunately, this problem could very-well be the terminal endpoint of fathers observing their children harvest their first big game animal. As an advocate for hunting and any sport revolving around the great outdoors, I constantly sweat over the thought of one day finding myself unable to pursue a passion that I love, strictly because finding areas to hunt on is nearly impossible because of other people’s actions.

To begin, an article featured on The Canadian Encyclopedia offers clear explanation as to why defining as a singular concept is so difficult. It states, “The question of what it means to be Canadian – what moral, political or spiritual positions it entails – has been a vexed one, so much that some people place the question itself at the centre of the identity.” (Blattberg, 2016). This quote highlights the idea that the topic of Canadian identity has become so intricate and conversed, that the struggles to define it have evolved to become part of it. The article identifies that several social divisions have occurred over time that can explain why Canadians are so disconnected from each other. These include the separation that exists between

To show Canadian identity from my point of view, I decided to draw a map of Canada. As a high-school student who is engrossed deeply in physical geography, economics and investing, I decided to focus on natural resources, industries, and recreation development. The way I view Canadian Identity is largely founded on the economics of each province allowing millions of employees and provinces to be wealthy.

Merriam-Webster defines identity as the distinguishing character or personality of an individual. All Quiet On the Western Front, In the Field, The Hollow Man, and Battlefield all exemplify soldiers of the lost generation. Men of the lost generation lose their identity because of the brutal war.

In Amin Maalouf’s book “In the Name of Identity” Maalouf emphasizes that we should not judge people on one singular identity. He argues that, “Identity can’t be compartmentalized. You can’t divide it up into halves or thirds or any other separate segments. I haven’t got several identities: I’ve got just one, made up of many components in mixture that is unique to me, just as other people’s identity is unique to them as individuals.” The essence of Maalouf’s argument is that one should not define another based solely on a singular component of their identity but rather their identity as a whole.

beliefs. Sober uses the example of lightning. He points out that according to the Greeks,

Identity refers to structured sense of self, which manipulates itself in threads of life (Burr, 2015). Figure 1 of Tūrangawaewae shows individuals identity can be classified under our age, our gender (male or female), the values and beliefs we share (religious or non- religious), the experiences ( good or bad), the people we surround ourselves with (friends and family), also not limited to, from our genetic inheritance (ancestors or parents). However, identity threads are not pre inherited but are pre-constructed idea influenced by social experiences (Kahu, 2015). I am a woman, 21 years of age, Christian by faith, Fijian Indian by ethnicity. I use mind set of goals to convey through my identity. For example, excelling