Tobias Wolff 's Old School

The identity of someone is defined by multiple factors. Inside this word identity, factors shown in characters make the word carry meaning. The character, Brother, in the nonfiction story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst demonstrates three main traits in a story that starts in Eastern North Carolina in the early 1900s when the end of summer and beginning of fall is about to occur. The main character's family has just had a child a few months earlier, his name, is Doodle. Doodle is not like everyone else, he has different traits due to his birth defect. Brother’s identity is portrayed through his actions with his brother. They include how he acts towards family, how he represents his age, and how the community influences him.

Identity can be affected by stereotypes. In these days’ people are automatically judged by their appearance. People are judged by height, race, and clothing. In the text “Black Men and Public Space” shows how a young man by the name of Brent Staples was quickly judged just by his looks. He decided to change his identity to please other and make them comfortable. In the text staple says “…I whistle melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi and the more popular

Another big point in Prose’s essay is the assignments associated with high school literature. She argues that teachers make students write around the books and not about the books they read. “No wonder students are rarely asked to consider what was actually written by these hopeless racists and sociopaths. Instead, they’re told to write around the book, or, better yet, write their own books,” (430). The assignments that teachers give these days are nto about the book or the story itself. They usually ask the student to rewrite the ending, or ask what the student would do if they were in the same situation as the character. Prose argues that high school students are seen as having the same experience as some of the characters they read about, such as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. “And is it any wonder that

Identity is something each person uniquely has. As a person matures and experiences new parts of life, their identity also grows and develops along with them. However, a person’s identity is comprised of all of their experiences. The way someone views themselves may also be very different than the way others view them as well. In dramatic literature, the way a character’s identity is portrayed is essential to the events in the play. Four characters in three works of drama convey how vastly different each person’s identity can be from others as well as how their own sense of identity differs from others views about them. These characters include the Duke in My Last Duchess by Robert Browning, Big Eight in Rodeo by Jane Martin, and Benjamin Wong

The search for identity is a seemingly difficult task. There are numerous challenges preventing many from discovering who they are. In Collier’s short story Marigolds, the author uses the narrator’s transformation to show that during stressful times, one's true identity is established. The narrator gives a description of her childhood in the exposition of the story. Lizabeth described her childhood as, “After our few chores around the tumbledown shanty, Joey and I were free to run wild in the sun with other children similarly situated. For the most part, those days are ill-defined in my memory, running together and coming like a fresh water-color painting left out in the rain” (Collier 24). Lizabeth recalls living a leisurely childhood in Maryland. The author’s use of characterization is significant because it gives the reader insight into the life of the narrator. Lizabeth frolics with the other kids in the neighborhood and has a relaxed life. Sometimes Lizabeth harasses Miss Lottie

There is no denying that every person needs ti have a persona. One’s personality is developed through the different environments, cultures, and even obstacles faced in order to create the type of person we are. When going through the process of finding our identities, we are faced with aspects of ourselves that we do not wish to be defined as. According to the author, Jennifer M. Volland “Stay: The Archetypal Space of the Hotel,” she emphasizes psychologist Carl Jung’s idea that we each have two sides to ourselves that we are either accepting or unaccepting as she states, “the ‘persona’ which is the outward appearance a person presents to the world, and the ‘shadow,’ the subconscious aspects of that person’s personality — that is, the denied parts of one’s self.” We are able to see parallels of Jung’s argument of what are the components of a person’s identity throughout David Wallace’s work, “Shipping Out,” of how the cruise ship internally exploits workers and manipulates their passengers while externally trying to maintain a facade of what the Zenith stands for.

Throughout Old School, by Tobias Wolff, privilege has a significant and negative impact on the lives of many people on campus, and the narrator. Privilege is very prevalent in the unique all boys environment in which the story is told. Many of the students have a very self-centered and egotistical attitude where self image and success is valued far beyond morals and character. The narrator, who comes from a different background than most of his peers, falls victim to the harsh and competitive expectations placed on him by the culture of his school. Feeling immense pressure to succeed and acquire status, the narrator is weakened by his lack of wealth, falls victim to the anti semitic environment, and out of jealously cheats on an assignment which ultimately leads to his unfortunate dismissal.

In the book City of Glass, by Paul Auster, identity is used to develop and establish existence in society. The author shows the challenges of identity by showing Daniel Quinn struggling to develop his own identity. The struggle of identity is carried through the text as Quinn bounces from one persona to the next. Nicola Caleffi’s article called Paul Auster’s Urban Nothingness supports the idea that Daniel Quinn’s character struggles finding his identity, as he takes on many different identities as his surroundings change. Identity is constantly changing as a result of its surroundings making it hard to remain stable and avoid deteriation.

What would happen if someone lost their identity? In “The Glass Castle” the author of the story, Jeannette Walls, talks about how this happens to her and her family. The book “The Glass Castle” is about Jeannette Walls and how she goes through tough times growing up with her parents. She tells the readers about her and her family’s problems and how they solve it or how they try to make the best of the problem. Most times it just gets worse, but sometimes they find a solution about all those problems or the problem. Jeannette Walls develops the theme of staying true to oneself is the key by using setting, imagery, and figurative language.

Thesis: Identity is constructed through the character’s change/realisation of social ideals and personal experiences throughout the text.

Despite being a very diverse literature genre in terms of influence and inspiration, North American literature encompasses many works that share some very common thematic elements. Though there are several themes shared, one in particular can be found in most any work – the importance of identity. Particularly in some selected pieces yet to be named, identity is a very important element, not only because it is a necessity for a main character in any work of literature, but because these works express ideas about identity as being very individualistic – as opposed to being a mere result of cultural surroundings. Zora Neal Hurtson’s Their

Over the course of your life, you come to struggle with the philosophical idea of personal identity; the thing that makes you, you. Oneself may shape their identity around aspects of their life that they have no control over like race and physical traits, as well as decisions that are made throughout their lives like affiliations and religion. Your personal identity can be seen through your passions and interactions with others. An individual’s search for their identity is something that may occur in everyone’s’ life. In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie highlights the theme of how the search for identity is always prevalent, through the conflicted characters of Junior and Mary throughout the novel.

“In the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity” (Erik Erikson). In literature, identity is used to establish who a character is and what they believe in. In historical fiction, identity functions as a device utilized to give a character more depth and give the reader more of an idea of what the character stands for and the decisions they might make. In Night, despite being a very devout man, after having his faith taken away from him, Elie Wiesel loses his individual identity proving that, when man loses his most important belief, he loses himself and becomes “a corpse” (Wiesel 115).

Within dystopian literature, identity is something that can be seen as an individual’s most core and precious element. Exposed against a scarcity of freedom in self-expression, we can begin to fully appreciate and understand the importance in the role of identity as well as its robustness. The role of identity and its manipulation is often explored within dystopian literature to exemplify weaknesses in human psychology as well as to destroy false images of strength and superiority that we apply to ourselves. In both The Road and

Identity can be construed as the differentiating character or personality of an individual. In the gothic romance novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells a tale of sin in a 17th century Puritan community and explores the theme of identity in characters Hester Prynne, Pearl Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth. Throughout the novel, Hester, Pearl, Arthur and Roger cope with the consequences of public and private shame. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the theme of identity is ubiquitous as Roger Chillingworth, Hester Prynne, Pearl Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale all form new identities as they cope with the consequences of sin.