Analysis of People's Identity - Essay Example

1 Multiple Identities Throughout peoples’ live they create and use multiple identities in order to help them in social situations. In my life I havea number of identities I use to help me interact in the world and speak more effectively to a variety of people. When I interact with my parents my identity is to present myself as together and working hard. I always talk about things I am learning and how busy I am. This way they do not bother me about being more productive with my time, or try to tell me how to live my life. They assume that I am doing well and everything is fine. I also never talk about girls or certain topics. With this identity I think that there are certain topics that aren’t appropriate to talk about with my parents and it seems that they agree and don’t talk about certain things with me. Another identity I have is one I use with my roommate. My roommate is very confident and talks about girls and dates all the time. With him I act more like a male concerned with women and sports and typical guy things. We often discuss dates and ways to meet girls. We also argue about sports and things like that. There are certain topics I don’t talk about with my roommate, like the political issues I support. I am not sure his position on all of these things, so when we discuss things like this I purposely make my position vague and try to change the subject. I also don’t talk about books or certain television shows I like, as I know that he doesn’t have the same tastes and wouldn’t care about these things. Sometimes my identities come into conflict with each other. For instance, when my parents visited me and went out to eat with my roommate. The topics of discussion were greatly different than what we normally talk about as I had to balance the situation between my identity with my parents and my identity with my roommate. The situation made me realize that there are many faces we use in the world and how it’s not necessarily a bad thing. #2 Madness The question of what does it mean to be insane is very complex. Many people use the term in regular conversation, not actually meaning the person is crazy. However, when trying to determine if the person is actually legally crazy requires a number of different views. I believe that in large part whether a person is crazy or not is determined by what the society they are in thinks about them. It is possible for a person in one group of people to be considered normal, where other groups of people might think that they are crazy. For example, in Africa many places have made homosexuality an illegal activity. In Uganda they are currently trying to make it punishable by death or life in prison. In the United States, certain states look down on homosexuality but others are approving. For instance, in San Francisco an openly gay man was voted to the city council. In this culture homosexuality is not viewed as madness, but a natural part of human existence. I believe people who are actually crazy have to have things extremely wrong with them where no society can accept them as normal. People like schizophrenics who hear voices or talk to themselves and don’t realize they are imagining these things are crazy. In these situations their interpretation of reality is determined by malfunctions in their brain, not actual reality. In the story I don’t believe the woman is actually crazy. My interpretation is that she is acting crazy because she is not happy with the marriage she is in and she wants to pretend to be crazy so that her husband will divorce her. Even though she acts crazy and does crazy things to people, it seems like she knows that she is being crazy. When she talks in quotations to people and talks about her actions she seems crazy. Yet, when she talks to the reader she is aware that she is acting crazy. People who are actually crazy would not be able to determine that the things they do are crazy, because they would be insane and think they are acting normal. #3 Gender The question of what it means to be male or female is more complicated than people think. While there are obvious genetic things that identify one person as male and another as female, the way they act can also be said to determine their masculinity and femininity. When a person dies the coroner has to mark on the death certificate whether they are male or female. In these situations they have to look at the person’s genetic identity and make a decision based on that. They determine definitively whether they are male or female by law. However, sometimes people who are said to be female by the law act in male ways or feel that they are more feminine than masculine. For instance, some people like to dress up like women when they are actually men. Can these people be said to be more than female? It seems that even though they are genetically female, they identify more with the male personality. One must question the deeper issue of what it actually means to be male or female, as it’s clearly not as clear as genetics. When I was growing up I played with GI Joe toys and Transformers. I am not sure if I played with toys because I thought that they were for boys or not. I think it’s possible that my natural disposition made me enjoy playing with these toys more than others. I also felt uncomfortable playing with dolls and female toys. In these situations it is possible that I felt pressure to not play with the toys because my friends with think I was feminine. I think my parents probably treated me differently based on my gender. They expected me to live up to the expectations the world has for males and to act in a masculine way. They probably expected me to engage in more physical activities like sports more. I believe they also expected me to be less emotional about things and not cry. In other situations, I think they treated me the same. They expected me to go to school and get good grades and things like that. #4 Immigration When considering the issue of immigration I have mixed thoughts. While it’s clear that allowing a number of people into a country without much certification can cause problems for the country’s inhabitants, the country can also benefit by allowing foreign inhabitants. When I think about the bad effects of allowing foreign immigrants into the country, I think about the situation where Cuba allowed thousands of prisoners into Miami to take advantage of the USAs laws about immigration. They called this the Mariel boatlift. After it occurred crime increased in Miami in large ways and the overall effects on the city was extremely bad. In this situation immigration was not right and should be avoided in the future. Another problem with immigration is that the immigrants can possibly require aid from the government. When immigrants from Latin America come to the USA they are usually poor. When they get hear they can take up the tax payer’s money. For instance, they may require increased Welfare or Health Care. They may also more frequently be involved in crime, as it may be the only way they have access to money and survival. In these situations the benefits to society are bad. In other situations, immigration can be good. America is known as the Melting Pot because it is made of people from all over the world who have come together. The variety of people is good for the country because it creates a variety of perspectives. Having different perspectives can lead to more discovers in science and education and art. This makes the country a better and more exciting place to live. For example, Albert Einstein came to America after leaving Germany. After he came here he did research that showed the Germans could make a nuclear bomb and wrote a letter to the President. America then made their nuclear bomb and ended the World War. Clearly, immigrants can benefit the country in significant ways. #5 Superheroes When I was growing up I never played with superhero toys a lot, but I have the typical childhood experience of watching them on television. I’d spend Saturday mornings inside watching Superman, Batman, Spiderman, and a number of assorted other characters. It wasn’t until later in life that I began to think about what these heroes and their stories meant, or that there are specific values that can be attributed to them. In recollecting the Superman cartoons and films I watched I now see how they embody values such as upstanding morals and civic goodness. Superman was always approved of by the city and they turned to him much like people do the police in all situations. Superman is almost like a god figure in the respect that he always does good and understands the right path. His costume is also red and blue which are the same colors found in the American flag, which further shows that he is approved by the people of the country and the law. While Batman is much like Superman in that they attempt to prevent evil in a metropolis, Batman’s image is darker. His morals seem to more vague than Superman’s, as the reason he became a crime fighter was out of revenge for the death of his parents. In many Batman movies there are periods when the citizens and government turn on Batman and question if he is doing good or bad. Oftentimes Batman seems concerned with catching criminals without any concern for legal justice and carries out punishments with little remorse. His costume is also dark which shows that his values a dark and morally vague. Spiderman seems to embody religious values to some extent. Like a priest, he feels that he cannot have an intimate relationship without it affecting his ability to do good and be virtuous, and his relationship with Mary Jane frequently becomes complicated because of this. Otherwise, much like Superman he embodies goodness and justice and doing the right thing. #6 The News In my opinion the news does take certain events and over televise them. When I wonder about what should actually be on the news I think that the news means that the events are supposed to affect the people watching them and is therefore necessary to know. However, to me it seems that the news covers more events because they are exciting or for gossip reasons. For example, currently the news has been covering the Tiger Woods controversy non-stop. While Tiger Woods advertises products on television and is a famous golfer and his life may be important to people, the extent to which the news talks about the affairs he has had and which women he has been with seems very extreme. It seems that the reason the news is televising this information so much is because the women featured are very attractive and the story is exciting and entertaining to people. I don’t feel that it is actually news and important for people to know. When I think about the Powers and Postman article I have to agree with many things they say. They talk about how the news is used largely for entertainment and in situations like Tiger Woods, Michael Jackson’s death that is obvious to me. In these situations the news is clearly covering these events because they appeal to people much like gossip does and they exaggerate their relevance as actual news because they are able to get more people to watch the news and increase advertising. They also talk about the ways that certain events look better on television so they televise them more. I think to an extent this is true, but I’m not sure if it is always as clear as the writers make it out to be. For instance, they seem to be saying that the news ignores stories in more depth because they do make for good television. I think that’s true, but the television also has to cover news that is relevant to all people, and therefore these stories might not be televised because they are irrelevant to the people, not because of their subject matter. Read More