The complexity of an Identity

Andreas Fell

9/12/14

Prof. Young

ENG 1100

The Complexity of an Identity

            Without our identities we are nothing. We are just another blank face in the crowd without certain defining characteristics that make us who we all are. All these characteristics combine to make our identity. The place that we were born in, our ethnicities, the people that helped raise us and mold us into the person that we are today. An identity is like a fingerprint; no two-finger prints are alike. The endless combinations of our identities gives us the individualisms that we can notice in todays society.

            When identity is brought up it is always thought of the literal terms as who the person is physically. But that is the literal term of identity. To go into their personality and really look at their internal identity, what makes up who they really are as a person, is necessary for the connections that we make in the world around us. You could look at me and my physical identity could be that I am big, a guy, have a beard, and that I am tall. But to really look at my internal identity would take a whole lot more than just looking at me.

            A person’s identity is like a fingerprint. By that I mean that in todays society with so many different culture overlap and different people from different culture marrying people with different cultures and backgrounds it makes it hard for two different people to have the same identity. This makes the concept of identities much more rich than it was previously.

            But not only the persons background can determine ones identity. Other factors such as culture raised in, and area where a person lived can also alter their identity. For example in “How to Tame A Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua she says “With Chicanas from Nuevo Mexico or Arizona I will speak Chicano Spanish a little but often they don’t understand what I’m saying. With most California Chicanas I speak entirely in English… Often it is only with another Chicana tejana that I can talk freely.” (248) What she is trying to say is that even though she is talking to other people with the same culture and ethnicity as her and who speak the same language as her, the dialects within those languages can make it a totally new language.

            To take and identity and to call it anything less than one of the most important things a person can have to help define them selves. Having an identity and being connected with that identity is what makes us not just another face in the crowd. But what it does is individualize each and every one of us allowing us to stand out and become our own person rather than just being another body. The complexity to each and everyone of our own identities is astounding to truly look at in all the different aspects that make up what an identity is. Each and everyone of us is an individual and to embrace our identity is an important step in being an individual.