Hello World I am back
and ready to share all my extremely interesting opinions and analysis’s of
elements that help create a person’s identity. Society places several roles
when it comes to creating a person’s identity; what class they are born into,
what side of the city they live on, and what race and or ethnic background they
come from. Society judges all these aspects and forces a person to be on their
own path based on these elements. When a child is born into a wealthy family and
grows up on the nice side of the city, they are sheltered from various occurrences
in life. Whether it is that, they have never seen violence or have never had to
work for anything in their life they are sheltered from what most refer to as
the real world. However, the elements that society has given them have formed
their identity. Where a human grows up, whom they grow up with and what they go
through during their life shapes an identity. As my AP Literature class
discovered after reading Native Son, by Richard Wright not everyone has
the luxury of living a life that they desire. In the novel, the main character
Bigger Thomas represents African Americans during the 1930’s, a period in which
blacks were considered free but faced societal segregation. Thomas desired to
lead his own life, to make him own choices. These choices were as simple as
getting to pick what side of Chicago he lived on, where he ate and what he did
for an occupation in his life. However, he never got this chance to lead his
own life for society had chosen his path for him based on his skin color,
something that was out of his control. Thus, the reason society played an
enormous role in forming Thomas’s identity; it had given him no other path. He
never had the opportunity to find and discover for himself who he was, he had
people tell him that instead. In addition, he lived on the poor side of Chicago
in a one room, rat infested apartment with his mother and two younger siblings
while a white adolescent grew up in a large home with multiple bedrooms and
plenty of food. Therefore, we see Bigger Thomas begin to hate society and be
jealous of the white population because they controlled him and had things he desperately
needed and desired. A person’s identity is not created based on one action that
takes place within their life, for instance in the novel we see Thomas murder
however we know that is not what has shaped him as a person. The hatred towards
him as well as African Americans in general during this era , the conditions in
which he lived and the culture he was brought up in shaped him as a person not
the violence that he carried out. This novel taught my class that it is not the
actions of one’s life that makes them who they are but their background , where
they came from , who they were raised by and ultimately what they have
experienced through life from society.
Until next time !
If you would like to know more about Richard Wright's novel, Native Son, click here!
Really enjoyed reading your blog! Society indeed plays an important role in our identity and can at times leads us to self realization or our downfall if we gives it too much power over our own selves. By allowing society to define us, we often lose our path or take one that is not ours. Loved how you used examples from the novel Native Son to support your insights! I also liked how you reinforced your claim about society pushing us to a point where there is nothing to do to save ourselves from the mess made (caused by society itself). Can't wait for your next post!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really great blog post. I loved your connections to Native Son and society and how you not only show the difference between black and white in Bigger's society, but you also showed the class as well. I also admire how you made the point that its not the actions of a person that makes that person's identity but the society they grow up in. Because the society makes the person, and the person does the actions. The only thing I would suggest, and that's probably just me, is to maybe break a long post such as this one into individual paragraphs and not a big one. The sentence structure was great and everything flowed nicely, but it felt like everything went on and on. Again probably just me. This was brilliant and showed a lot of thought. Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteI really like this blog post. Based off how you structured your title and beginning of your paragraph, I knew immediately what your argument was going to be about. In my opinion, just like Gallerya said, I feel like you should divide the huge paragraph into smaller ones so it doesn't look like a huge mesh of ideas. Overall though I love how you didn't just write a plot summary but included insight and examples from the novel into your blog. It gives the reader not only a good understanding of the novel, but an understanding of how society does shape one's identity. You also didn't just refer to the blacks but also the white community in your post which I like because the novel wasn't just about Bigger but the people who shaped and influenced him to be who he is. Again brilliant job, and honestly I'm anticipating for the next post. So goob job!
ReplyDeleteThe first suggestion I would make is definitely splitting up the one huge paragraph. Visually it would look much better and it would help the flow of everything. I agree that society has basically forced people into becoming who they are, but I would like to see more connection to Bigger and the novel that way. Within that, you could add more specifics and maybe quotations to make the post even more insightful. Other than that. I enjoyed reading this and could really hear your voice and your own style of writing.
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