Essays on Self Identity

The implications of one’s identity make it a defining factor that is not only very intuitive and reflective of one’s beliefs, values, and associations, but also has longstanding implications beyond that. The way one chooses to define themselves is sometimes subject to prejudice, judgment, or...

In the book Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, there are many characters that faced obstacles in finding themselves. One of these characters is Ying-Ying St. Clair. Throughout the various stages of life, as a child, adult, and a mother, Ying-Ying St. Clair has struggled...

Re-Defining Poetry: Whitman and Dickinson In the discussion of literary trailblazers in America’s shallow history, poets Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are seldom left behind. Whitman and Dickinson are often tagged by their ability to fuse form and content as they made huge risks and...

With mass immigration from Central, Southern, Eastern Europe, and Asia into New York City and the Great Migration of Blacks from the South into Chicago and other Northern cities around the turn of the twentieth century, the Northern old-stock White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite came into...

The question of ‘Do I control who I am’ has no easy answer. To an extent, the answer is yes. You can control what you choose to do. However, what you choose to do is constrained by what you have been taught. The concept of...

I am Rita Rani, 25 years old, born in India, Punjab. I have a great personality and very simple and very good dressing sense. I am more confident and able to take decision of my life by own. As I belong to nursing profession I...

T-shirts aren’t always the most appropriate forms of expression, but a very effective way individuals represent and express ideas along with beliefs. Although, t-shirts are a very simple and discrete way of expression, therefore, utilizing an individual’s thought process and opinion bases. Many individuals consider...

“How well do you know yourself?”, seems an easy question to figure out but when being asked you could be thinking twice. Do I really know myself as an individual or do I need to depend on what other people perceive on me? Somehow, a...

“I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children, but I wouldn’t give myself, ” Edna admits. Unfortunately for Edna, she struggles all throughout her short lived life trying to balance her family and love...

An admittedly autobiographical poet, Michigan-born Theodore Roethke draws much of his influence for his subject matter from everyday life. Many of his poems deal with his own self-introspection and quest to find himself through verse. Roethke is a visceral poet whose evocative verse reflects real-life...

True Allegiance Glitter, pageants, pom-poms, ballet shoes, and batons: what is a girl to do when these are the highest expectations of her peers? In the school system where I grew up, these were the expectations for girls who wished to be popular and accepted....

A tattoo is a body modification where someone has drawn an image on someone else’s skin and body art is different piercings that people have on their body to represent their creativity. All tattoos or body art have health risks that can be minor or...

In Girlhood (2014), Marieme (Karidja Touré) faces a question of self identity. Troubled by poor performance in school and an abusive older brother, Marieme joins an all-girl gang to define herself and her individuality through petty crime, alcohol, and violence, as well as love and...

Growing up in a multiracial family can be confusing, especially if one’s family history has been kept a secret for years. This is the problem for James McBride, whose lifelong struggle of self-identity kept him from truly understanding and accepting who he was and where...

I recently read the essay Double Identity, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. The essay discussed the way that the authors life was as she grew up. She discusses how she had to live two separate lives, do to the strict family rules and also the influence...

?From the point of view of a reader, it is clear that Jamaica Kincaid is not satisfied with the way Antigua is now. By comparing pre-colonial Antigua with colonial and post-colonial Antigua, Kincaid creates a novel that is anti-tourist and questions whether the island was...