Identity

            A person’s identity is strongly influenced by her or his culture, as we might assume.  What we often fail to take into account is that we all live in distinct cultures far more plethoric than those that can be put on a map or on a timeline.  Chinese, Egyptian, American, Mongolian – these are what most people think of as cultures.  I suggest, however, that a culture is any group that has characteristics that unite it.

            If you participate in clubs, sports, or really any activity as part of a group, you are a member of – and thus shaped by – that culture.  Religions, languages, and ethnicities influence individuals as well.  Geographic location, social class, government type; the list of realms of interpersonal representation and communication is endless.  Consequently, each individual belongs to innumerable cultures that struggle for dominance in the fight to control the individual’s identity; this chaotic battle is what makes attempts to follow the “be yourself” adage so convoluted.

            Meena Alexander contemplates the amalgam of cultures she finds within herself when she asks, “What might in mean to look at myself straight, see myself?  How many different gazes would that need?” (Alexander, in her autobiography Fault Lines)  Alexander feels the pull of so many disparate societal influences that she feels her identity is fractured, split into a piece for each culture she has been a part of.  It is arduous, if not theoretically impossible, to determine a singular and specific “gaze” that sees all that there is to see about a person.  Keep this in mind … the side of a person that you see is but one part of his or her identity.