Who Am I, Hedwig?

Identity is a group of characteristics, data or information that belongs exactly to one person or a group of people and that make it possible to establish differences between them. The consciousness that people have about themselves is part of their identity as well as what makes them unique. According to psychologists, identity is a consistent definition of one’s self as a unique individual, in terms of role, attitudes, beliefs and aspirations. Identity tries to define who people are, what they are, where they go or what they want to be or to do. Identity could depend on self-knowledge, self-esteem, or the ability of individuals to achieve their goals. Through self-analysis people can define who they are and who the people around them

Interactions between people are never ending. The effects of one conversation could affect the outcome of that person’s life, consequently changing their identity completely. There comes a time, though, when dealing with others confident in their identities, where one must ask themselves the personal question of “who am I?”. No matter if you’ve just stumbled upon this question, in the process of discovering the answer, consistently changing your answer, or confident in your answer, the people around you are the ones you have to thank for molding your personal identity.

Intellectual. Spirited. Collegiate. Daughter. Son. Identities are everywhere and in todays society we can truly create our own identity; be who we want to be. Identity is the condition or character as to who a person or what a thing is; the qualities or beliefs that distinguish or identify a person or thing. Identity is created from our hearts and who we are, but also who we want to be because we create our own identity. Maya Angelou writes about the ability to change identities beautifully in “Graduation”, while Bob Greene gets the true stories on the subject in “Cut” and lastly Mark Twain shows the horrid truth on the identity that man has chosen before in “The Lowest Animal”. Our identities can change when we change who we become.

“We are not born knowing who we are or what our place is in the social landscape; we learn to be American or Japanese, male or female, husband or wife, or Amy, Richard, Micheal, Rachel, or Rebecca.” Our identities are constructed by this “social landscape”. The social construction of identity takes place by living life through first hand experiences and through certain social circumstances. Amartya Sen says,” Classification is certainely cheap, but identity is not. More interestingly, whether a particular classification can plausibly generate a sense of identity or not must depend on the social circumstances.” Identity is a complex matter but can be defined in simple terms. It is who you are. Your personality, the way you act in response to

Discovering self-identity is about how an individual figures out their qualities, beliefs, values and morals in society. The influences an individual has from family, the pressure to conform to social expectations, displayed by social media and the gender stereotypes, play a major role for a young adult discovering their self-identity. Young adults are struggling to find their self-identity, as they believe they need to conform to society’s expectations to “fit in”. (Cherry, 2014, para 1). Young adults are also struggling to find their self-identity, as gender identification associated with social traits, placed by social expectation.

Our identity can sometimes be shaped by the way others see us. As we have seen, the way in which others view us can have some sort of impact on how we see ourselves. There are also other contributing factors such as our years of adolescence, the basic human need of wanting to belong and maturing; all play an equally important part in the forming of our character and who we are. On balance it appears that there is not only one influence in the shaping of our identity, but there are many.

“Build your character thoughtfully and painstakingly upon these precepts, and by and by, when you have got it built, you will be surprised and gratified to see how nicely and sharply it resembles everybody else’s” (639). One’s character or identity determines where you fit into society. Identity is who a person is, or is classified as. Most people judge their social identity by comparing themselves to others. They accomplish this by comparing what they have in common, and by what they have accomplished in their lives. People try to find their identity by evaluating all their qualities and beliefs they have. This determines how this makes them similar or different from others.

Who are you? Who am I? These are questions that we all ponder at some point or another in our lives. As human beings we are seemingly inundated with the desire to classify and categorise. We are constantly defining and analysing the differences that we observe in the world, it seems only natural that we would apply this method of classification to our position within our society. More specifically, we want to understand our social identities and this can be achieved by acknowledging which groups we identify most with.

I believe that the underlying message touches on self-discovery and finding yourself. Hedwig’s mother says early on before the operation that Hedwig (Hansel at the time) if Hedwig wanted to walk away then she must leave something behind. “To be free one must give up a part of oneself.” Though Hedwig’s mother was talking about the sex change operation, it is a metaphor for life as well. If we want to grow as a person, then we must leave some part of ourselves behind. Through the entirety of our lives we grow and change, especially early on in life. We can’t keep the baggage that we pick up throughout life. Sometimes we need to leave it behind and keep moving forward. The entire play Hedwig describes how she has gone through her life trying to

This in turn is affected by social context and cultural mores. Some aspects of our identities are determined at birth, such as sex and aspects of our physical appearance. Others, such as class or faith, we might inherit or adopt from family and culture. In other respects, our identities have a legal basis, like nationality or immigration status. We also have choices. We can actively decide to reassign things like faith, nationality and even gender later in life, depending on changes in circumstance or personal preference. As we grow older and interact with a wider range of people, cultures and institutions, we become aware that we have a number of Identities. Identities are able to combine or emphasise these depending on what seems to be expected of us and how we are treated. The balance of power in society is reflected in our identities, just as we can use identity to influence the behaviour of others. By understanding the strategic nature of identities, we can recognise how individuals come together in communities and use connections to protect and promote their shared interests and help bond

James Marcia is the most outstanding psychologist who examined the development of identity. Marcia interviewed different people on how they developed their beliefs, choices, etc. He concluded that identity was predominantly based on two things: occupation and ideology. Occupation refers to one's particular role in society. Occupation might be a job, like a doctor or a nurse, but it could also apply to roles such as mother or student. Ideology refers to a person's fundamental beliefs about topics such as politics or religion (“James Marcia’s Identity Theory”, n.d.).

Like many other studies involving social sciences, the idea of identity multi-layered and rarely involves a concise definition. Howitt & Julian define identity as “your understanding of who you are and why you are that person” (2009, p40) focusing on the various aspects of cultural, social and ethnic influences that interact and produce the values, beliefs and attitudes of an individual (Ford, 2016). This definition focuses on a singular individual’s diverse range of experiences and their interactions within the world, whereas O 'Donnell, Dobozy, Bartlett, Bryer, Reeve, & Smith define identiy on a broader scale as “the sense of being a distinct and productive individual within the larger social framework” (2012, p153). The O’Donnell et al (2102) definition focuses on the same determination of what makes the individual but in comparison to other individuals within the larger social domain such as geographical communities, schools or workplaces. Both O’Donnell et al (2012) and Howitt & Julian (2009) state that social interactions within a childs micro world in the early stages of development play a critical role in developing one’s sense of

Identity is really a complex thing and can’t be as simple as just asking someone who they are as Swartz mentions in his writing, “What is Identity.” Asking someone the question of who they are barely scrapes the surface of that person’s identity. This poses the internal subconscious thought in many of “who am I?” When asking oneself “who am I,” one might think in less complex terms such as; personality, race, ethnicity, culture etc. as the main focus to describe who they are. However, there are many complex elements that contribute to defining a person and who this person claims to be. In order to define ourselves, we must search deeper. Developing into who we are is a long process of exploration and discovery. In order

Psychologist Anita Woolfolk explains that as children develop their thinking processes become more abstract and that they are more equipped to think meta-cognitively about themselves. At this point in their development the study of identity will enable students to, “clarify their own values, learn higher levels of moral reasoning, and learn the skills of value analysis” (Woolfolk 87). This unit is justified because it is able to “respond to the psychological needs of students. Literature often deals with common human experiences about the pressures, changes, dilemmas, aspirations, conflicts, and so on that make growing up (and being grown up) such a challenge” (Smagorinsky 2008). The focus on identity development is fitting for freshman between the ages of fourteen and fifteen because they are beginning to form the foundation of their adult identity. Also students are, “morbidly preoccupied with what they appear to be in the eyes of others as compared with what they feel they are” (Erickson 128), and that can cause an enormous amount of undue stress. Demonstrating the flexibility of identity and the numerous factors at play in a developing identity will hopefully alleviate some of

As I look back on my journal from the first week of this class I notice how different yet the same my answers to the question “who are you” are. In the first week, I still talked about how I identify as a hard-working college student that strives to meet her goals. I think, still do this day I identify as that. However, now I like to go in-depth with that question. Not only am I hard working but I am hard working because I strive to get my homework done on time, ask questions when I am confused, and participate in class discussions when I have something to input instead of sitting quietly like I typically would. I think that after studying identity for a whole semester I can grasp and identify who I think I