The Identity Is Essential For Identity Essay

Andrew Sullivan, author of, What is a Homosexual, portrays his experience growing up; trapped in his own identity. He paints a detailed portrait of the hardships caused by being homosexual. He explains the struggle of self-concealment, and how doing so is vital for social acceptation. The ability to hide one’s true feelings make it easier to be “invisible” as Sullivan puts it. “The experience of growing up profoundly different in emotional and psychological makeup inevitably alters a person’s self-perception.”(Sullivan)This statement marks one of the many reasons for this concealment. The main idea of this passage is to reflect on those hardships, and too understand true self-conscious difference. Being different can cause identity

Most people, unless they choose to be an outsider, want to be considered “cool.” Whether it’s to fit in with a peer group, or clique, or to impress someone in particular, like a member of the opposite sex, or a potential mate. Or possibly to gain something from an individual for financial or social gain (see “Scamming”).

Identity is what defines us as a person. Everyone one on earth has their own unique identity. To showcase my identity, I created a collage of images and descriptive words, called an identi-kit. This identi-kit shows what I feel like is my identity to myself and the others. My identi-kit identifies me as a mixed martial artist. The identi-kit has images of a deadly shark with mixed martial arts gloves on that say mixed martial arts on the front and fight shorts with the words competitor and warrior on them. It also has descriptive words like “killer instinct” and “fight” which describe my spirit. There are three assumptions that come to question when asking about one’s identity. The first is if you were born with this

Human beings have full control over their identities after they have received knowledge and have become shaped from external stimuli. These stimuli include the teaching process of humans which comes through tradition, schooling, and the actions of other humans and the influence of the organisms around them. Andrew Solomon, through “Son,” was able to use his experience of growing up and labeling himself as a gay dyslexic to show how his environment and knowledge had shaped his identity and how it was viewed by others with different identities. In “An Elephant Crackup,” Charles Siebert was able to explain how the other organisms or humans are able to form new identities for elephants over time by shaping them a new environment and having the elephants process it. In “Mind’s Eye,” Oliver Sacks had different case studies of blindness from different people and was able to show how each one experienced their blindness help shape and express their individual identities. The stimuli that becomes processed by a person in the situations, accounts, and studies of these works assist in the role of explaining the formulation of an identity.

Identity. What is identity? One will say that it is the distinct personality of an individual. Others will say that identity is the behavior of a person in response to their surrounding environment. At certain points of time, some people search for their identity in order to understand their existence in life. In regards, identity is shaped into an individual through the social trials of life that involve family and peers, the religious beliefs by the practice of certain faiths, and cultural awareness through family history and traditions. These are what shape the identity of an individual.

My identity is something that that no one can take away from me. As I am still growing and learning, I can say that I have found many things that appeal to me. My interests will help define my personality and express myself in ways that I can’t express through words. I enjoy finding new things to do and doing my best in aiming towards my goals. I have many goals, but I know that I can only accomplish them through patience and perseverance.

There are millions of words across the globe that are used to describe people and uncover their identity, but what is identity? How can you begin to describe something that varies so greatly from one human being to another? Can you create a universal meaning for a word describing human concepts that people often fail to define for themselves? Of course there isn't one definition to define such a word. It is an intricate aspect of human nature, and it has a definition just as complex.

An identity is the state of being oneself. Your character is comprised of your past, present, and future. Some individuals are ashamed of who they really are and try to change themselves, or mask their identities. One of the dominant themes that is conveyed throughout The Namesake is the theme of identity. In the novels, everybody is a little lost, or a lot lost, frankly. Practically every individual struggles with his or her identity, because every person feels the tug and pull of different cultures, different traditions, and different dreams. The Namesake is about this perpetual dilemma faced by immigrants as they fight to maintain their identities while trying to shake them off at the same time while The Great Gatsby is about people

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.

“I belong to the people I love, and they belong to me--they, and the love and loyalty I give them, form my identity far more than any word or group ever could.” (Veronica Roth, Allegiant). “You should never make fun of something that a person can't change about themselves.” (Phil Lester). Both of these quotes describe the definition of identity.

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

To be an American is to have traits of freedom the thing that the founding fathers counted on is to have the will to speak freely and to have the will of religion in the constitution it say that every citizen should have life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This impacts and brings everyone from different places to help create a society that is free. The founding fathers also counted for the people to speak for what is right. The reason is because this helps out on what the people want instead of the government wants this goes to show that the people matter and that is what makes a person happy and also makes a person feel like they have the pursuit to be happy.

As students’ progress in the academic system, they also develop a sense of identity, belonging, and individuality. The feeling of belonging to a certain group plays a role in their existence. The definition of identity according to Hernandez in her work “Diversity Pedagogy” states, “…information used to acquire a sense of self and group membership is determined by the biological, cultural, ethical, social, psychological, and political factors in one's socialization process” (Hernandez). Identities are created through a variety of reasons depending on the kind of background their childhood stage was developed in. In a classroom setting, students may feel like they have a certain reputation to uphold. However, this may differ from their identity outside of the school setting. In addition, having differential personalities inside and outside of the classroom, teaching styles can also have an enormous impact on student learning. Sometimes, a teacher must readjust their teaching style to fit the background of their students and the environment they are learning in. Educators should keep in mind of their students’ character and background when creating a lesson procedure. So that the lessons may apply to the students personally and give real life implications to their daily activities, be it inside or outside the classroom.

Identity can be defined in several ways, but for a student, it is something that changes over time. It is the essence that defines who you are and who you associate yourself with. In order to be a successful educator, one must adapt, learn about, and embrace their student’s identities as they work towards encouraging their individuality as well as their culture. As a new educator, teaching in a school of minorities, Michie was constantly trying his best to engage with his students and learn about them as well as himself in the process. While reflecting on his teaching and his students, Michie stated, “they also forced me to take a fresh look at how I fit into that bigger picture – to step back and look at my own hands. It was a reawakening for me, really, but it was only a beginning. I knew I had a lot yet to learn about the kids who called me their teacher” (Michie, p. 93). This depicts the vulnerability that Michie, as a new teacher, has with his students. He may know about them from their looks or attitude, but as far as who they are, where they come from, and how they identify themselves, he has yet to learn about it.

The influence of language and power in the formation of identity can be well understood through discussion of English as a World language, the most dominant language in the world. In relations to world Englishes, Kachru, (1997) proposed three circles: Inner, Outer, and Expanding circle. The inner circle refers to norm providing with 375 million native speakers. It refers to the countries where English is spoken as the primary language of majority of the populations (ENL). Kachru (1997) emphasizes that UK, USA, New Zealand, Canada and Australia are the countries where English is spoken as a native language. The outer circle refers to norm developing with 350-450 million English as a second language speakers (ESL). It refers to those countries where English is used as an important and official language. According to Kachru (1997) these countries are ‘ex-colonies’ of Britain and the USA. Countries like India, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Nigeria use English as a second language. These countries serve their important business, official and international affairs in English. The extended circle refers to norm developing with 750 million English as foreign or International language speakers (EFL or EIL). It refers to those countries where English is spoken as a foreign language. Kachru (1997) identifies Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, Japan, Indonesia, and Middle East as EFL (English as a foreign language) countries. In these countries English is not used strongly but taught and