The Importance of Self Identity and Individuality
Stereotypes have been around since the beginning and continue to hurt the lives of certain people in society. Due to stereotypes and prejudice made by certain people, the author, Evan Hunter, successfully demonstrated through the story “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” the consequences of stereotyping. The story focuses on a sixteen year old boy named Andy, and his last moments being alive after being stabbed by a rival gang known as the Guardians. Andy was stereotyped because of his purple jacket that identified him as a member of the Royals. While he is reflecting on his life, four people come by but do not take the time to help. The drunk man
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There were so many things to do. He wondered why he’d never thought of them before, wondered why the rumbles and the jumps and the purple jackets had always seemed so important to him before. Now they seemed like such small things in a world he was missing, a world that was rushing past at the other end of the alley” (Hunter, pg 6-7). The tone shown through this is sadness and grief because he is realizing all of the things he will never be able to do because he missed out on them and he realizes that there are many more things important to life than the purple jacket. This realization suggests that if he had not chosen the stereotyped identity of others in the gang that wear the purple jacket, he would not have been killed. If he had thought of the outcomes of his decision, he may of seen that it was not the best choice to join the Royals. It seems that he had thought more about the rewards of pride and respect than the things that would effect him. Which is another example as to why the tone is sadness and grief because he is regretting things he had chosen to do. In addition, the feeling and emotions towards the subject also happen when it is described that “If he had not been wearing the jacket, he wouldn’t have been stabbed. The knife had not been plunged in hatred of Andy. The knife hated only the purple jacket. The jacket was a stupid meaningless thing that was robbing him of his life” (Hunter, pg 7). Once again, this tone of
There are many aspects of identity in the poem “Sex without Love,” by Sharon Olds. I can relate my own thoughts to how the author views the subject that she talks about in this poem. There has been a situation in my own life where I was thinking to myself, just as the author was, “How do they do it, the ones who make love without love?” (Olds 740). Having been raised as a well-rounded and disciplined person, as well as religious, I know the discouragement of having premarital sex. It’s not just the immorality that these characters are experiencing that the author is talking about, but they probably have personal issues that have to do with a their self worth and identity. These
Personality theories include a wide range of thoughts and it is hard to narrow them down to a choice of how and why individuals are their identity. These complex thoughts must be examined and gone over certainly before one can decide whether an individual meets the characterized significance of the hypothesis. An example would need to be set up with the person before they could be said to have a specific identity quality. To what extent should an individual take after an example of conduct before they can be named with that kind of identity and why? Who among us has that privilege?
The issue of whether identity is socially constructed or an innate characteristic remains a contested one. For some, identity is a product of the society, interactions, influence, and practices while for others, it is biological or rather primordial. At the very basic, identity is an essential personal characteristics as it encompasses the membership to different groups, including religion, gender, and ethnicity, the traits people show and what others ascribe to them (Newman 126). Identity locates people in the social world and influences all their actions, thoughts, and feelings. Several renowned thinkers and philosophers offer their
Everyone is a unique individual. We all have different experiences and influences and skills or talents that have an impact on the development of our identities. Furthermore, individualism is hard-coded into our DNA. Each of us is composed of DNA building blocks created in a specific order to form our individual genomes which makes us who we are. The amount of combinations to this is effectively limitless and, in addition to this, our experiences can effect the expression of traits coded by DNA. My talent, which is a major part of my identity, is that I can easily make annoying people stop bothering and scare others from doing what they are not supposed to. This is mostly due to the fact that my apparent default expression, even when I am happy, is either upset or angry. This has a plethora benefits, granted that it is has a just as bountiful
Young people are facing more pressure to fit in socially and is causing their self-identity to diminish. In particular, adolescents are adopting new personas, so they can fit into what is so-called culturally acceptable in modern-day society due to third-party influences. One obvious negative concern is that lacking qualities in parent-adolescent relationships can cause narcissism. Additionally, conformity has caused individuals to follow the actions of others even if the situations are damaging to avoid criticism. In conjunction, peer pressure causes people to act or behave a certain way, even if they believe it is morally wrong in an effort to fit
In a society where one is expected to conform to the masses, maintaining individuality can be a difficult task. It is also, however, a task vital to the identity of an individual. In the world, there are those people who merely follow the herd, and then there are those individuals who strive to lead and be their own people. The first group of people becomes lost in the shuffle of life; they attempt to blend in, and they are successful, making them all but invisible. The second group, however, commands the respect of society and ultimately has a better grasp of their identity. While individuality is respected, spending your life trying to be like other people will ultimately make you lose sight of who you are.
There are numerous factors that either make up or restrain the self-identity of a person or an individual. Culture, in addition to family traditions, is one of the factors that affect the self-identity of an individual. When growing up, the environment around affect the personality, values, as well as, beliefs of an individual. The environment includes friends, family members, and the people that affect the life of an individual. So, if the environment is negative, then an individual will have low self esteem.
Identity is something so important in someone’s life. Having your identity defines yourself and makes you different from the others , and that’s what makes every single one of us unique and our own special. As a Latina raised in a mexican household I learned to always be determined to achieve my goals, because of the opportunities and good morals my family have taught me to lead me to success.
Individuals and individuals from minority groups should be free to express their individuality by the way they dress, ink up and bedazzled their bodies without being judged or discriminated against. Individual(s) should be able to build their character that will promote them to grow. Some of the core values of virtues that are essential to flourish in life are wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence(Hall, M. L., Langer, R., & McMartin, J. (2010).Therefore, individual(s) should not be discriminated or judge for the way they want to express their individuality, it does not mean they do not hold any virtues. In addition, people from all around the world who are of different cultures, religions, ethnics, and economic,
Plato famously said that the things we know are things that are true, that we believe, and that we have justification for believing. Those justifications might be irrational, or they might be rational and based on proof; but don’t get too confident, because “proven” is not a synonym for “true”. So, how does Jane know that she is the same person as the girl in that photo? It seems almost instinctual to know and understand when we see ourselves or something that we have prior knowledge of, as we recognize specific identities that may have been proven to resemble us, such as our physique or other items and accessories in the photo that we remember make us who we are. There is an ongoing philosophical argument of personal identity, which is accompanied by the “Body Theory”. Some inquiries claim that personality persists over time because you remain in the same body from birth to death. In a sense that’s true, but it’s not as if you consist of all the same identical biological qualities that you had when you were born. You’ve replaced your outer layer of skin hundreds of times so far, your red blood cells only live for about 4 months before they’re cycled out, and even your skeleton is constantly being remodeled. But, argumentally, doesn’t our mind make us who we are also, If not, even more so? Philosopher John Locke implied that if you can remember back to your first day of kindergarten, you maintain a memory link to that person. Although we are
That is what Gerard (1954, p. 314) observed: if a group’s individual members are attracted to their collective group, they tended to show a greater concern for the opinions expressed on issues surrounding the group and could be more persuaded to alter their beliefs and opinions to reflect the collective group. Individuals who are disconnected from normal social groups: family and friends, schools, church, work and other social institutions are more likely to follow in deviant behaviour in a group because of the bonds they create with the criminal culture group. When they are associated with these individuals they are less likely to leave them once a group is established, despite conflicts with the group policies as they may have their own opinions
Social identity theory, it is a person’s sense that is based around the group they are in, either by their personal identity or with different kinds of social identities. That is, people will try to improve their own image of themselves. The theory was proposed by Henri Tajfel. People can increase their self-esteem by both their own achievement and interaction with a successful group of people. This shows the importance of social belonging. This theory is based around three mental processes, social categorization, social identification and social comparison.
A different argument for self-identification comes from an old social norm developed during the era of slavery known as the one-drop rule. This rule states that a multiracial person is assigned to the race with the lowest social standing among the races represented. Going off of previous history and other social norms, the hierarchy would be as follows: non-Hispanic white, Asian, Latinos, and lastly black. When forcing a youth to choose between one of their multiple races, “those with some black or Latino heritage are far more likely to report being black or Latino than those with white or Asian heritage are to report being white or Asian” (Herman 2009).
Not everyone has equal opportunities, some exert more choice and some face constraints when it comes to making and remaking their lives. Stephanie Taylor (2014. P.5) highlights that there are different identities and belonging to one can give your more or less of an advantage. Gender identity defines male, females, transsexuals etc. but there are certain job roles in society that are either male or female dominant. For example, you expect an air hostess to be female, and so if applying as a male, the decision to do this is constrained by society’s perception or that person and he may be subject to prejudices, or their own beliefs may act as a deterrent. A female applying would meet the social norms. This is also a good example where agency (capacity of the individual to act independently, exert free will) is constrained by structure (Patterned social arrangements that affect agency).
An immense set of factors that aids in the determination of the personality traits one will have has to do with the environment and people that surround that person. This is certainly the case for me, because without the encouragement of my family, and both the benefits and adversity created by my academic environment, I would not be who I am today. Without these factors, I would not be the capable student who is excited to educate himself as I currently am.