Everyone’s mother is different and special to them in their own way, my mother had a tough early life that shaped her current identity. When I was finished interviewing my mom over the various questions I gave her, it seemed that the key categories of her identity resulted from early life and the hardships she had to face. The categories she chose did not result into any order in particular, although I felt that it leaned more to things that one could easily figure out on their own if they saw the person rather than more questioning categories. The main categories that my mom and I felt that shaped her identity were socioeconomic class, religion, and race. Religion was a key role in shaping my mom’s identity mainly because it instills moral …show more content…
According to her, growing in a moderate income family was an easy thing for her because her parents did not need to be worried about searching for jobs or making enough money because back in the late 60s and early 70s white families were always bringing in more than the minorities in the US; even they had better job employment opportunities. In the 60s and 70s tons of minorities had to pay more for things than white people in certain areas of the U.S; according to David Caplovitz (1963), “464 families living in three New York settlement houses revealed a consistent pattern of high prices, poor quality, high interest charges, and unethical merchandising techniques being inflicted on them” (p.643), was quoted in a book about poverty, minorities and consumer exploitation in the 60s and early 70s, which further strengthens my mother’s answer. Internally this was much better for her because she did not have a worry in the world for her early childhood and teen years financially, which she told me helped her keep on track in school and staying away from trouble. Externally she would not need to hide herself or worry about the way she looked because of race prejudice being wide spread in that time frame. Even I could relate to these things being white myself; for example, growing up with …show more content…
This dramatically affected her social class and economic class until a little ways after high school. A bit after my mom’s mother and father split up, she decided to live with her mom and for a time with her other siblings they lived in an apartment. That did not surprise me as much as what she spoke of next which shaped her into the benevolent person she is today; she told me that her mom had to pay with food stamps because she was not making enough money along with even living in an apartment. I asked my mom if she was ever felt targeted because she was not making a high enough salary and she replied “All the time because people would rub it in other’s faces not only in real life, but as well as on television.” From this she learned that people are snobby and can care only about themselves when they have an exceedingly amount of money or power. Not only that, however she was able to learn others point of views through being able to work and talk with people who do not have much. Internally, this made her think more about the others’ point of view and not show off what others do not have making her a more respecting person. Overall, this effect had immensely shaped the type of person she is today through the habit of being a money saver, kindly hearted person to those who have less than