...head: LOST IDENTITY Lost Identity Introduction to Literature 125 April MacGrotty Aug 22, 2010 Lost Identity Literary works have been around for centuries to be enjoyed by its many readers, keeping them enthralled and mystified at the same time. Authors that write literature generally write with the intent of conveying a message to their reader. Not all messages are easily conveyed and many times readers develop their own interpretation of what the author’s meaning or the moral to the writing is. Literary works are written as short stories, poems, dramas and plays incorporating different elements, such as the setting, theme, characterization and conflict to tell their story. In the short stories “Shiloh”, by Bobbie Ann Mason, and “Story of an Hour”, by Kate Chopin along with the poem, “Lost Sister”, by Cathy Song a common theme is shared, a theme of women seeking individuality and later being met with a new freedom. Although, the literary works are not from the same genre or share common historical context the woman’s place in their society is exhibited. In this paper I will show the comparisons of how each woman is bound by a certain restriction which is released at the end of the writing. There is something special about every individual and that is their personal identity. It is hard to live a life when your personal identity is taken away from you to satisfy the needs of others. When one loses their identity at the hands...
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...Hemingway and Identity Ernest Hemingway had an expanse of ideas contributing throughout his two short stories, “Big Two-Hearted River: Parts I and II”. The abundant themes and motifs applied into the two stories differ due to their broad nature, but the theme of identity and renewal of the protagonist, Nick, stands absolute. In order to be given a sense of renewal, what must be done first? Essentially to expand our understanding, we can begin by looking at the root word of “renewal”, which is “new”, and is defined by Merriam Webster as: “not old : recently born, built, or created”. Delving further into Hemingway’s short stories, it can be concluded that the protagonist’s fate was transpired to be alike the initial setting given to him- as...
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...Personal Identity in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor The unnamed grandmother in the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner, considers herself to be a lady because of her heritage in the Old South, and believes that she is superior to those around her. In this work, the grandmother puts her family into dangerous situations because of her personal identity, eventually leading them to their death. As the story progresses, she leads her family down a dirt road, off of their intended route. She startles her cat as they continue down the dirt road, which jumps up and frightens her son, Bailey, causing them to go off the road. This series of events leads to their conflict with the Misfit, and eventually their murder. She maintains her personal identity throughout the story regardless of the consequences of these actions. Even at the brink of death, she continues to uphold her belief that she is superior, going as far as to call herself a lady when the Misfit is going to kill her. The grandmother considers herself superior to Bailey and his family because she deems herself to be a lady. She does not want to go to Florida and attempts to convince her son to go east Tennessee instead, by showing him a news article about the Misfit. She says that she would much rather bring her grandchildren to the Old South where “they would see different parts of the world and be broad” (372). She uses the children to convince her son and shows false affection...
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...The search for a person’s own personal identity is an important stage that people go through in their lives. Every human being in the world would go through the stage of searching, then finding their identity at some point in their lives. But this search is often affected by stereotyping because it can affect people’s view of themselves and also their view of other people around them. Because of this writers feel that they need to convey the importance of finding one’s own identity then taking the time to learn and respect other people’s identity. Then also how dangerous it can be if we let stereotyping cloud our judgements on ourselves and those around us. Some example of texts where writers that explore this theme are, the poem “Bred in South Auckland” by Glen Colquhoun, the poem “Search for my Tongue” by Sujata Bhatt, the short story ‘’On the Sidewalk Bleeding” by Evan Hunter and the short story “After you my Dear Alphonse” by Shirley Jackson. These four texts can be separated into two groups. The first group is the way that stereotyping can affect people’s view on their own search for identity in both positive and negative ways. This would be the poems, “Bred in South Auckland “and “Search for my Tongue”. The Second group is the way that stereotyping can affect people’s view on others identity which would be the short stories, “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” and “After you my Dear Alphonse”. The idea of stereotyping affecting the search for identity in ourselves is seen in the...
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...difficulties students have at school and at home when it comes down to learning a language which they aren’t acquainted to and the consequences of such, depending on their social background. Reflection on readings using Comparison and Contrast Maxine Hong Kingston (Tongue Tied); Richard Rodriguez (Aria); Gloria Anzaldua (How to Tame a Wild Tongue) In the short story’s ‘Tongue Tied’, ‘Aria’ and ‘How to Tame a Wild Tongue’, written by Maxine Hong Kingston, Richard Rodriguez and Gloria Anzaldua respectively, each author interrelates the issue of bilingualism and bi-culturalism as a personal, narrative-style, life experience. Their personal experience all share the same setting; them during childhood deprived of speaking their own language, struggling to get through school and get accepted in the American society and the impact on their lives as a result of such pressure. When comparing the short stories, it is clear that each individual writer share several aspects in common, as well as differences. One of the most recurring aspects that each author conveys in their short story is the notion of one’s self recognition – identity – as a child which they do not recognise when they are at school; in America. H. Kingston is Chinese, whilst Rodriguez is Mexican and Anzaldua is of Spanish origins. An example in ‘Aria’ is when Rodriguez says: “…I easily noted the difference between classroom language and the language of home” (286). Here, Rodriguez is emphasizing on the fact that he feels...
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...Baglady People often judges other peoples identity, based on their material goods, like houses and cars. They even allow their own capital affect on their own identity. To enter the Good Fortune Shopping mall, you need to have a good identity. The search for an identity is central in Baglady. In her short story, “Baglady” from 1999, A. S. Byatt writes about Daphne whose husband, Rollo, is to go on a business-trip to the Far East. Through 3'rd person narrator, she highlights identity as the theme, showing that how much, people think about their image and identity. Daphne Gulver-Robinson is married to her husband, Rollo, whom she accompanies on a business trip in the Far East. The trip they are going on to, is no a couple trip. Rollo has invited Daphne on the trip, only because he wants to portray him as a normal family, like the others on the trip. He was afraid that his colleges would think that he was odd, if she didn’t come. Because it mean so much for him, that Daphne need to go with him, it gets you thinking that there is something wrong, because it seems like it only matters how everyone thinks he's a family guy, instead of actually being a normal family guy. Daphne thinks that she is a social misfit, because of her appearance, quote from the text “She has tried to make her attractive for this jaunt and has lost ten pounds and had her hands manicured; but now she sees the other ladies, she knows it is not enough". The image and the materialistic things, as appearance...
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...(Social Media Defined). This innovative form of media enables the internet users to transfer text, photos, audio, video, personal and social information. Some famous platforms would be Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. There are billions of profiles found in these platforms and this show that numerous amount people out there are quite active on social media. Lately, there have been issues that came up regarding fake identities on social media. Fake identity is intentionally forging your own identity or others for certain reasons especially in terms of personal. In 2010, a documentary titled “Catfish” brought a true story based on fake profiles on Facebook (Peterson, 2013) . New Schulman fall in love with a beautiful young woman’s Facebook picture and her voice over the phone, which turned out to be a middle-aged wife and mother. When asked the reason of her act, she mentioned that she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and she felt lonely. Schulman decided to turn the documentary into a show and reveal all online relationship fraud to create awareness on fake identities used on social media. In my opinion, fake identities should not be used on social media because it is a crime offence, it is not an ethical act to perform and much worst it creates unnecessary troubles for teenagers as they are the ones who are extremely active on social media. Faking identity is a serious crime offence in all the countries. Sometime back in 2011, local United States online mail (Stevens, 2011)...
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...Nina Reed Jhumpa Lahiri is a realist writer of today. Her work is inspired by her experience as an Indian growing up in America and never quite fitting in with both her traditional Indian background and her new American community. Lahiri’s stories express her personal encounter with evading her Indian heritage. She involves in her work the everyday struggles of being stuck between two cultures and remaining true to one’s self. The majority of her stories incorporate her main character having an identity crisis. Lahiri herself, as well as some of her close friends, battled with defining her sense of self as well as how it affected her personal relationships. The author’s stories are relatable in a sense that it deals with the everyday struggles finding one’s true self. On July 11, 1967, Nilanjana Sudheshna Lahiri was born in London England to Bengali Indian immigrants. At the age of three, Nilanjana and her family relocated to the West of the Atlantic to Rhode Island. Because her name was difficult to pronounce, her teacher called her by her nickname, Jhumpa. It was only a pet name that her parents called her, but in America, it became the name she was called by her friends and teachers. This event would mark the beginning of her struggle to assimilate in America. Her father was and still is a librarian at the University of Rhode Island, which influenced her love of reading and writing. While growing up, Jhumpa was often conflicted between both American...
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...Karma In many countries and cultures, Western society is looked at with fascination and as if it is superior. This fascination may lead to an uncritical adaption and imitation of western ways of living and people may end up leaving all of their own cultural identity behind, ending up in a melting pot of a homogeneous culture. This is exactly what has happened to the anglicized main character Sir Mohan Lai, in Kushwant Singh’s short story “Karma”. The short story is narrated through third person. Singh has chosen the narrator to be omniscient, but shifting between being limited to Sir Mohan Lai and his wife Lachmi. This allows the reader to discover thoughts and feelings from both characters and it gives the reader a broader perspective. Sir Mohan Lai, our main character, is an Indian man whom while studying at Oxford for five years has adopted an English lifestyle and now, in every manner possible, tries to imitate Englishmen. Lai hates everything about his home country, India. This is seen already in the very beginning of the story when Lai talks to a mirror made in India, “You are so very much like anything else in this country inefficient, dirty, indifferent” (p.15 lines 4-5). Throughout the story it is very clear that Lai is fascinated with British culture and English lifestyle, and that he is very much against, and very contemptuous against, everything that has anything to do with India. Lai has chosen voluntary assimilation while studying in England. Lai sees himself...
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...Gogol's Namesake: Identity and Relationships in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake Author: Judith Caesar Allusions to Nikolai V. Gogol and his short story "The Overcoat" permeate Jhumpa Lahiri's novel The Namesake, beginning with Gogol's being the name the protagonist is called through most of the book. Yet few of the reviewers of the novel mentioned Nikolai Gogol at all in their discussions of the novel, except to describe the protagonist Gogol's loathing of his name, or to quote without comment or explanation Dostoevski's famous line, "We all came out of Gogol's Overcoat." So far, no one has looked beyond the surfaces to examine the significance of the allusions to Gogol that are so much a part of the fabric of Lahiri's novel. Without the references to Nikolai Gogol, it is easy to read the novel as simply another account of the difficulties of a first-generation American trying to "find himself," nicely written, but not particularly thought-provoking. It may seem merely unexamined documentation of the confusion of its main character, a confusion which itself has become a bit of a cliché. The conventional wisdom about first generation Asian Americans is that an awareness of two cultures is a kind of curse which makes them unable to understand who they "really" are, as if identity were nothing more than cultural identification. Read with an understanding of the significance of the Gogol story, however, the novel is much more clearly an elucidation of the causes and...
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...can be acquired, shared and preserved through these short stories. Society has passed down folktales as a form of language, values and religion for many generations in hope to raise cultural awareness. Low-context cultures practice folktales as a method of acquiring a culture’s native language through presenting oral stories to children. Rob Pope notes that “virtually everybody learns to listen and speak before they learn to read and write, and every society is *oral before it is literate” (55). For decades, people have used folktales as a way to communicate with young children. These tales have been taken for granted over the years. They are great foundations to teach youth imperative, cognitive, linguistic and vocational skills. The children enjoy hearing the interesting tales then through direct observation they acquire a new genre of vocabulary. With the flexible usage of words in folktales, the children often develop an early awareness and appreciation for cultural discourse. Folktales are an appropriate form of education for the youth to learn how to express themselves through language, structure their thoughts and to reason. One main purpose of folktales is to encrypt morals that engage youth to learn cultural values. According to Pope, “it is still common for readers to expect that a text has some hidden meaning or secret ‘message’ if only they can crack the code” (35). These tales are exciting, short stories that are filled with valuable lessons of...
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...Introduction This annotated bibliography is designed to give readers an understanding of how Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin is a modernization of the biblical account of Cain and Able. While the text of Sonny’s Blues does not align with the story of Cain and Able verbatim, the underlying theme of being a “brother’s keeper” is central to both stories. I set out to identify the various elements involved in being a “brother’s keeper”. After reading the biblical account of Cain and Able, two sub-themes came to the forefront self-identity and responsibility. I selected the sources listed below to highlight the ways Baldwin uses the themes of identity and responsibility, and other literary mechanisms to connect Sonny’s Blues to the biblical account of Cain and Able. Byerman, Keith A. "Words And Music: Narrative Ambiguity In 'Sonny's Blues'." Studies In Short Fiction 19.4 (1982): 367. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Feb. 2013. Byerman discusses how music and words create ambiguity in Sonny’s Blues. He points out the rhythm of the wording in the text and how the narrator uses the words to communicate his ideas and as a defense mechanism when his reality is too harsh to handle. The narrator’s candid wording at times draws the reader in with understanding and intrigue. Yet, his vacillating uses of metaphors seem to shut the reader out when the details become too sensitive. Just as the narrator uses words to present his case to the reader, Sonny uses music...
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...Everyone has an origin to their life story—one that is part of their innate identity. To Marie Wilcox, it is her Native American heritage: a foundation extending from generations of people, tradition, as well as unique styles of communication that form a cultural identity. “Marie’s Dictionary,” a short documentary directed by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, explores the theme of perseverance through the story of one woman’s passionate purpose to preserve her tribe’s language from becoming extinct by creating the first ever Wukchumni dictionary. With the goal to revive appreciation for the art of Native American languages, the documentary focuses on Marie Wilcox, the last fluent speaker of the Wukchumni language, and her passion to save it from extinction. The film’s director, Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, first met Ms. Wilcox through the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival. In a short article by the New York Times, Vaughn-Lee provides some background to the Wukchumni tribe. According to the director, the tribe resides in San Joaquin Valley, California, and is part of the Yokuts tribal group, but is not recognized by the federal government....
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...In Elise Trumbull and Moria Pacheco’s personal essay “Cultural Identity”, both show how much cultural is in the world today that we don’t even know about. “We all have unique identities that we developed within our culture but are not fix possess” (Trumbull and Pacheco’s 9). Reader’s see that in this quote means that all cultural are valuable but are not the same. “Our culture is often hidden from us, and we frequently describe as the way things are” (Trumbull and Pacheco’s 10). Their culture is hidden by the way things are in the world. Next in Alice Walker personal essay “Everyday Use” shows that a person’s culture could mean everything to them. “Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure” (Walker 50). The meaning of...
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...as an outcast. Gender roles seem to be the most common. From the day a child is born societal norms are placed on them. For example a young boy’s room will be probably be blue and filled with sports items, while a young girls room will be pink and be filled with dolls and a play kitchen set. These small details, along with expectations, begin to shape their role in society. “Barbie Q” by Sandra Cisneros is a perfect example of societal expectations. In this short story Cisneros introduces two young girls who are playing with their Barbie dolls. The girls go into great detail when describing their dolls and the outfits the dolls are wearing. One can conclude that the girls are poor when the main character tells the reader that they only have one outfit for their dolls. They even had to make a dress from a sock because they could not afford other outfits. This is further illustrated when the girls begin describing how they will play with the dolls. Everyday the two girls play out the same story with the two Barbies fighting over an invisible Ken doll. One day when walking through a market, the young girls discover a set of dolls that have been damaged by a fire in the toy warehouse. Although the dolls are not clean and still smell of smoke, the girls do not mind. As long as they can dress their Barbies with the outfits and continue to play...
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