Identity In The Story Smiley By Jane Eaton Hamilton

Growing up in an old-fashioned family it turned out to be a secret she anticipated to take to her grave, although Sona says she understood she was a girl from age four.

Jill does not support her mom’s decision to adopt the baby, but she never clearly shows what she wants from her mom. In the beginning of the story she just wants her Robin to stop the adoption, then in the end she she wants Robin to go through with a adoption. One of the main reason that Jill doesn't trust Mandy is because Jill feels as if her father would not have trusted Mandy. Jills father, Mac, died about a year before Mandy came to live with them and Jill has been angry and closed off about the subject ever since then. This event also leads Jill to be reluctant to change, and unwilling to trust people, and new ideas, and keeps herself narrow minded to anyone or anything that is different than Jill, and her attitude or aroma. Robin tells Jill “ Jill. I have been trying to involve you from the beginning. You practically put your hands over your ears every time I brought it up. Now you have questions?... Trust me I’ve got it all taken care of.” Zarr, pg 145. In this moment Jill was trying to guilt her into mom into not adopting the baby, Or scare Robin by trying to tell her everything that could go wrong with the adoption. Jill is trying to do this because she is scared of what could happen if when there is a new person in her life that she can’t get rid of. Because she is scared she is trying to do anything to stop the change, which is why she will do anything to keep her mom from adopting the baby. She will say

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

She did this by getting to know her history and life to help her incorporate some of those aspects into her new life. This helped Penny accept herself. A meaningful pattern seen in Penny’s

Her parents accept the fact that she has created a new identity for herself and accept her as the individual she is. They finally give her the moral support that she

The girl in this story is faced with the harsh reality of who she really is, and more importantly, who she is expected to become. In her struggle to identify with her father, she is faced with the extraordinary task of accepting who she is, and not who she wants to be. In spite of the fact that she thinks, behaves, and dreams things like a boy would, nearly everyone in her life is forcing her to see that she is a girl, and

Elizabeth Grace Saunders, an American author, once said “We spend our lives asking the question, ‘What do people want me to do? Who do they want me to be?’ But this is a betrayal of our inner truth. We should be investing our lives in the pursuit of discovering who we are and what we were created to do.” The self-reward of accepting one’s identity are tremendous.

Identity. What is identity? One will say that it is the distinct personality of an individual. Others will say that identity is the behavior of a person in response to their surrounding environment. At certain points of time, some people search for their identity in order to understand their existence in life. In regards, identity is shaped into an individual through the social trials of life that involve family and peers, the religious beliefs by the practice of certain faiths, and cultural awareness through family history and traditions. These are what shape the identity of an individual.

She knew that everyone would always tell her that she’s a boy including her mom but that isn’t how she felt and it showed. When she was eight, her teacher called home to her mama and said, “If we don’t get your son some therapy, he’s going to end up in New Orleans wearing a dress.”

Jazz knew that she wasn't a boy she just felt it. When her parents started seeing that she was different and accepted her for who she was. A big part of accepting herself was her family. Although they were worried about her future about how kids would react to her, if they were going to bully her they supported her because they knew that not letting her be herself would hurt her even more that the bullying.

At first she keeps quiet and try to be who her mother wants her to become. She doesn’t get a choice. This is choosing to conform. Then she silently retaliates, purposely trying to do bad so her mom will leave her alone. To where she finally speaks up because she finds her inner voice and she knows who she wants to be, and doesn’t care that she is not accepted because of it.

Brenda began to rebel against her parents, Dr. Money, and society also. She was not pleased with having to dress up for the holidays, as wearing dresses meant acting like a girl, she felt as though she was being pressured to be someone she’s not. “I always felt like an oddball around my own family” (99). Not only was she the “oddball” in her family, but also at school with her peers. The Child Guidance Clinic would inform her parents that her behaviour was defiant, unhappy, and emotional (100). She felt incredibly troubled by her sessions with Dr. Money, that she imposed a threat to commit suicide (141).

Janet’s relationship with Wendi changed Janet and became very valuable as she was being sure of what she wants. Wendi, just like Janet, was born as a boy, but she wanted to change her gender as a girl. When Janet first met Wendi, Wendi was wearing makeup and dressed up like a girl. She lived with her supportive grandparents, who did not give any pressures to Wendi to be like a boy. Many of Wendi’s characteristics influenced Janet, and Janet could start to show herself as a normal girl even outside of Wendi’s room. They remained friends even though they went to different schools. When Wendi started to take female hormone pills, she sold some to Janet and Janet also started taking them. The pills gave another chance of staying strong as a female to Janet. Their friendship became very significant to Janet since Janet could monitor her changing. She finally told her mother what she was doing and what she was really craving for. Eventually her mother noticed Janet’s desperation.

Identity is what evolves us, it is what makes us think the way we do, and act the way we act, in essence, a person’s identity is their everything. Identity separates us from everyone else, and while one may be very similar to another, there is no one who is exactly like you; someone who has experienced exactly what you have, feels the way you do about subjects, and reacts the same to the events and experiences you have had. This became prevalent to me as I read through many books, that everyone goes through the process of finding who they are. A prevalent theme throughout literature is the idea that over time one develops their identity through life over time, in contrast to being born with one identity and having the same

Identity is a word that is used very commonly and regularly by people in their daily life. Identity formation is a process of developing distinct, separate identity. “A person’s identity has many attributes. It is a representation of one’s unique personal experience, memory, ethnicity, culture, religious orientation, gender, occupational role, amongst various other factors. Erikson refers to identity as “some belief in the sameness and continuity of some shared world image.”Identity may be defined as one’s consciousness of one self and others’ perception of one’s individuality”, (Yamin, 2008).