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“I AM NOT A BIRD; AND NO NET ENSNARES ME: I AM A FREE HUMAN BEING WITH AN INDEPENDENT WILL.”
CHARLOTTE BRONTE (JANE EYRE)
Identity in the contemporary society is generally defined in relation to two aspects. The first is by the characteristics or behaviours of an individual which make him/her a member of a certain group in society and the second being certain uniqueness in an individual’s character that only they can be identified by, commonly referred to as personality .
It has been said that “there are two great days in a person’s life – the day we are born and the day we discover why”. Well, one is surely not arguable as we are all aware of it (at least most of us are lucky enough to be) i.e. the day we are born. But the other remains unknown to most of us. You might question what identity has to do with this. The answer is a lot. Without knowing where you’re from, the values you stand for and the person you are, discovering the path you want to follow in life, the person you intend to be and where you’re headed can be an impossible task.
There is no hard and fast rule used to apprehend ones identity. Therefore an individual’s identity can be derived from their cultural heritage, country of origin, race, gender, religion, and wealth among many more... However, this is societies chosen way of drawing the line between black and white, rich and poor, wrong and right, what isn’t as opposed to what it is, who is and who isn’t...
Being black or white, Male or female, Muslim or Atheist, Jew or Christian, African or Asian does not define the person you are. All these are but anchors where you can base your beliefs. This is not to discredit the roles played by ones backgrounds or origins or to give them the least of importance. On the contrary, if anything, all these play a major role in shaping an individual into the person they later become but in the long run, we all choose what to believe in and distinguish what's wrong from what is right from all we have grown up learning.
Whether to live in the shadows of the various stereotypes drawn by society or to rise above them and be individuals who reconcile between all their backgrounds, be it religion or race wise, and use all the teachings to shape our personal beliefs and develop exceptional characters is all up to us. We all choose who we want to be and through this, we discover in due time, the reason of our being. So whether you live in the shadows of others or create your own persona is up to you because in the end, the path you will have chosen and the values you will stand for will make you the person you are and that right there will be your identity.
Chuck Palahniuk in The Invisible Monster said “Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I’ve ever known”. But this raises an interesting question, isn’t it in the act of being able to combine the ideas and thoughts of others that best appeal to ones character that we create a unique identity of our own and therefore in a sense making us original? After all, no man is an island. All our thoughts and actions do develop as a result of concurring or opposing a certain idea in society. They say that originality, is non-existent and that there is only authenticity. But I believe that when you put everything that appeals to you together, you achieve originality in some sense, because no one else can do you, better than you.
One can only define their true identity by first grasping and then executing the concepts of free will and independent thinking and only then can one claim to have a real self-defined identity.
“We can spend our lives letting the world tell us who we are. Sane or insane. Saints or sex-addicts. Heroes or victims. Letting history tell us how good or bad we are. Letting our past decide our future. Or we can decide for ourselves. And maybe it’s our job to invent something better.” Chuck Palahniuk (Choke)
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