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Understanding the Concept of Identity

Identity is a tricky idea to pin down. Many people think of identity as simple and fixed, but it’s not. Many other people think that identity is changeable and malleable, but even they misunderstand how and why identity is changeable and malleable, and end up using the word (and the idea) poorly. Let’s start with a few things that identity isn’t, to help us figure out how to think about what all it can be.

Identity is not:

Fixed — identity is not something that remains the same throughout one’s life. It changes over time. It can also change from situation to situation, over very short spans of time.

Singular — identity is not something of which a person has only one. There isn’t a “true” self that exists within a person, with everything else being layers of interpretation. One’s identity can be one thing in the morning at breakfast, and another thing in the afternoon during class, yet both are still fully identities.

A possession — identity is not something that someone owns. It is created in the interplay of people, and is therefore made and remade constantly.

Controlled by any one person — identity is not held in the control of a single entity, and therefore is not subject to definition by any one entity (even the person claiming the identity).

Lots of people want identity to be a noun because nouns are real and concrete. They’re things. I can own a thing. I can say it’s mine, and tell you how to treat it, and make the rules about it. There’s a feeling of intimacy with an identity because it seems definitional, and if something defines me, I want to be the one in control of it. In order to have more control of it, I want it to be fixed and concrete. When it’s fixed in form just the way I like it, then I can be comfortable with it defining me. And that cycle of justifications becomes a self-supporting set of arguments. But what if we break that cycle? What if we crack it open at the moment when an identity defines someone?

Definitional — identity does not make a person who they are. It does not shape, or limit, or solidify someone in a particular form, or category, or manner.

If identity doesn’t define us, then what does it do? If it’s not who we are in a definitional sense, then what is it, and what does it mean to say “I am an X, a Y, or a Z”? Well, if it’s not telling me what something is , the best it can be doing is telling what something is like . It can describe, rather than define.

Identity is:

Descriptive — identity attempts to capture what something means in a given context. By doing so, this understanding of identity acknowledges that context is never absent, and it is always shaping the thing it contextualizes.

If we understand identity as descriptive, rather than definitional, then it becomes easier to understand all of the things above that identity is not. Descriptions aren’t fixed; they can vary from person to person. Descriptions aren’t controlled by one person; some people love cheesecake, while others hate it. If we can now wrap our heads around some of those things identity isn’t, what else can our understanding of identity as description rather than definition tell us about what identity is?

Fluid — identity changes across time and space. Who I am tomorrow may not be very much like who I am today due to a whole host of factors.

Situational — identity can vary from one situation to the next. In the context of my friends, I may know myself as a fun and funny person, but in another context of a conversation with my boss, I may be very serious and focused. I’m one me, but my identity in each situation is different.

Communicative — identity is the result of people’s ideas, words, and actions interacting with one another. I can send out a message by wearing a shirt with a logo on it, but how that shirt is given meaning by someone else is beyond my control. I send out the message, others take it in and interpret it, just like linguistic communication.

At this point, some people may be throwing their hands up and thinking, “if identity is just a description, and it’s all so variable, then what does it matter?” Well, it matters quite a lot because, even though identity is not a definition in some existential way, people still pretend or misunderstand that identities define, and then they layer other meanings on top of those definitions. In other words…

Operative — identity does stuff.

If I decide that the way I describe you is somehow fundamentally who you are, then I can use that identity as a justification for all sorts of thoughts, feelings, beliefs, actions, etc. Even further, if I have some sort of power that I can wield, my feelings and beliefs can become actions that affect you greatly. So, while identity is descriptive, rather than definitional, we shouldn’t let ourselves fall into the trap of thinking it is unimportant. Likewise, we shouldn’t fall into the other trap of using the often inappropriate importance given to identities to try to prove that they are definitions.

Analytical frameworks, critical frameworks, critical lenses, and so forth

Epistemology (or, an episteme), interdisciplinary.

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Why Identity Matters and How It Shapes Us

Sanjana is a health writer and editor. Her work spans various health-related topics, including mental health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness.

Dr. Sabrina Romanoff, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and a professor at Yeshiva University’s clinical psychology doctoral program.

Verywell / Zoe Hansen

Defining Identity

• What Makes Up a Person's Identity?

Identity Development Across the Lifespan

The importance of identity, tips for reflecting on your identity.

Your identity is a set of physical, mental, emotional, social, and interpersonal characteristics that are unique to you.

It encapsulates your core personal values and your beliefs about the world, says Asfia Qaadir , DO, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at PrairieCare.

In this article, we explore the concept of identity, its importance, factors that contribute to its development , and some strategies that can help you reflect upon your identity.

Your identity gives you your sense of self. It is a set of traits that distinguishes you from other people, because while you might have some things in common with others, no one else has the exact same combination of traits as you.

Your identity also gives you a sense of continuity, i.e. the feeling that you are the same person you were two years ago and you will be the same person two days from now.

Asfia Qaadir, DO, Psychiatrist

Your identity plays an important role in how you treat others and how you carry yourself in the world.

What Makes Up a Person's Identity?

These are some of the factors that can contribute to your identity:

• Physical appearance
• Physical sensations
• Emotional traits
• Life experiences
• Genetics 
• Health conditions
• Nationality
• Race  
• Social community 
• Peer group 
• Political environment
• Spirituality
• Sexuality 
• Personality
• Beliefs 
• Finances 

We all have layers and dimensions that contribute to who we are and how we express our identity.

All of these factors interact together and influence you in unique and complex ways, shaping who you are. Identity formation is a subjective and deeply personal experience.

Identity development is a lifelong process that begins in childhood, starts to solidify in adolescence, and continues through adulthood.

Childhood is when we first start to develop a self-concept and form an identity.

As children, we are highly dependent on our families for our physical and emotional needs. Our early interactions with family members play a critical role in the formation of our identities.

During this stage, we learn about our families and communities, and what values are important to them, says Dr. Qaadir. 

The information and values we absorb in childhood are like little seeds that are planted years before we can really intentionally reflect upon them as adults, says Dr. Qaadir.

Traumatic or abusive experiences during childhood can disrupt identity formation and have lasting effects on the psyche.

Adolescence

Adolescence is a critical period of identity formation.

As teenagers, we start to intentionally develop a sense of self based on how the values we’re learning show up in our relationships with ourselves, our friends, family members, and in different scenarios that challenge us, Dr. Qaadir explains.

Adolescence is a time of discovering ourselves, learning to express ourselves, figuring out where we fit in socially (and where we don’t), developing relationships, and pursuing interests, says Dr. Qaadir.

This is the period where we start to become independent and form life goals. It can also be a period of storm and stress , as we experience mood disruptions, challenge authority figures, and take risks as we try to work out who we are.

As adults, we begin building our public or professional identities and deepen our personal relationships, says Dr. Qaadir.

These stages are not set in stone, rather they are fluid, and we get the rest of our lives to continue experiencing life and evolving our identities, says Dr. Qaadir.

Having a strong sense of identity is important because it:

• Creates self-awareness: A strong sense of identity can give you a deep sense of awareness of who you are as a person. It can help you understand your likes, dislikes, actions, motivations, and relationships.
• Provides direction and motivation: Having a strong sense of identity can give you a clear understanding of your values and interests, which can help provide clarity, direction, and motivation when it comes to setting goals and working toward them.
• Enables healthy relationships: When you know and accept yourself, you can form meaningful connections with people who appreciate and respect you for who you are. A strong sense of identity also helps you communicate effectively, establish healthy boundaries, and engage in authentic and fulfilling interactions.
• Keeps you grounded: Our identities give us roots when things around us feel chaotic or uncertain, says Dr. Qaadir. “Our roots keep us grounded and help us remember what truly matters at the end of the day.”
• Improves decision-making: Understanding yourself well can help you make choices that are consistent with your values, beliefs, and long-term goals. This clarity reduces confusion, indecision, and the tendency to conform to others' expectations, which may lead to poor decision-making .
• Fosters community participation: Identity is often shaped by cultural, social, political, spiritual, and historical contexts. Having a strong sense of identity allows you to understand, appreciate, and take pride in your cultural heritage. This can empower you to participate actively in society, express your unique perspective, and contribute to positive societal change.

On the other hand, a weak sense of identity can make it more difficult to ground yourself emotionally in times of stress and more confusing when you’re trying to navigate major life decisions, says Dr. Qaadir.

Dr. Qaadir suggests some strategies that can help you reflect on your identity:

• Art: Art is an incredible medium that can help you process and reflect on your identity. It can help you express yourself in creative and unique ways.
• Reading: Reading peoples’ stories through narrative is an excellent way to broaden your horizons, determine how you feel about the world around you, and reflect on your place in it.
• Journaling: Journaling can also be very useful for self-reflection . It can help you understand your feelings and motivations better.
• Conversation: Conversations with people can expose you to diverse perspectives, and help you form and represent your own.
• Nature: Being in nature can give you a chance to reflect undisturbed. Spending time in nature often has a way of putting things in perspective.
• Relationships: You can especially strengthen your sense of identity through the relationships around you. It is valuable to surround yourself with people who reflect your core values but may be different from you in other aspects of identity such as personality styles, cultural backgrounds, passions, professions, or spiritual paths because that provides perspective and learning from others.

American Psychological Association. Identity .

Pfeifer JH, Berkman ET. The development of self and identity in adolescence: neural evidence and implications for a value-based choice perspective on motivated behavior . Child Dev Perspect . 2018;12(3):158-164. doi:10.1111/cdep.12279

Hasanah U, Susanti H, Panjaitan RU. Family experience in facilitating adolescents during self-identity development . BMC Nurs . 2019;18(Suppl 1):35. doi:10.1186/s12912-019-0358-7

Dereboy Ç, Şahin Demirkapı E, et al. The relationship between childhood traumas, identity development, difficulties in emotion regulation and psychopathology . Turk Psikiyatri Derg . 2018;29(4):269-278.

Branje S, de Moor EL, Spitzer J, Becht AI. Dynamics of identity development in adolescence: a decade in review . J Res Adolesc . 2021;31(4):908-927. doi:10.1111/jora.12678

Stirrups R.  The storm and stress in the adolescent brain .  The Lancet Neurology . 2018;17(5):404. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(18)30112-1

Fitzgerald A. Professional identity: A concept analysis . Nurs Forum . 2020;55(3):447-472. doi:10.1111/nuf.12450

National Institute of Standards and Technology. Identity .

By Sanjana Gupta Sanjana is a health writer and editor. Her work spans various health-related topics, including mental health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness.

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Identity, in itself, is difficult to define—let alone ourselves as a persona. It seems that identity is what we and others say we are. In this case, identity is flexible and fluid. It can change at a moment’s notice, as who we are is a story we and others tell ourselves. Identity is not a solid, carved-into-stone statement. Moment to moment, our identities are shaping and reshaping themselves.

Yet, if I was to try to define my identity concretely within a worldly view, I would say I am primarily a person focused on creativity and spirituality. Every day, I write poetry, play percussion, and sing. I regularly submit my poetry to journals, and perform in concerts as a percussionist. I enjoy singing sometimes in concerts, but mostly I sing for my own enjoyment at home and while on walks. In terms of spirituality, I meditate each morning and night, and listen to spiritual music during the day. I also enjoy pondering about spiritual philosophies from Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and many other religions and traditions. I try to remain in a meditative state throughout the day.

I can get more mundane and say that I am a 33-year-old Caucasian male, American, who was born in Seattle, Washington, and currently live there. I have a wife, no children, and a pug. I work as a content coordinator and editor. My favorite food is either Mexican cuisine or Italian cuisine. I am both an introvert and extrovert. I took an IQ test and got a near-genius score. I have had five surgeries. I have won awards for my writing. I like to occasionally play chess, and was crazy about this game in high school. My personality is a mix of bubbliness and introspectiveness. There is so much to list off, but I do not know how interesting it would be for readers to trudge through.

Examining my identity, I realized that yes, I am this surface identity that anyone can fill out in a personality test. However, underneath this layer of identity, I believe there is a more universal identity. Through meditation, I have experienced moments and spans of time when all my thoughts, physical sensations, and emotions were so far away from being perceived directly that I felt detached from them. The discovery that my identity could simply be consciousness was startling. In addition to being surprised, I realized that this state is available for all of us—that pure consciousness could be our universal identity.

What does that mean for identity itself? Well, I believe we might fooling ourselves that we are, say, a 33-year-old Caucasian male from Seattle who writes poetry every day and loves taking walks with his pug. This is only a superficial layer of identity that is constantly adapting and changing according to the environment, circumstances, and happenings. The universal identity of pure consciousness is always the same, and can be said to be the most secure form of identity. Also, if we view people as pure consciousness, then it is difficult to have prejudice or ill will for them. This body and all of its components are only a container for this pure consciousness. Do not ask me how and why this pure consciousness is there, though. I do not have enough knowledge to answer this question properly.

This is one example of a reflective essay. As you may have noticed, it’s a concise but comprehensive analysis of the chosen topic. If it’s your first time writing something like this, don’t be afraid to ask for help from the best assignment writers . It’s not an easy task and searching for guidance is a natural thing to be doing.

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What Is Identity?

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By Anand Giridharadas

• Aug. 27, 2018

IDENTITY The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment By Francis Fukuyama 218 pp. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $26.

THE LIES THAT BIND Rethinking Identity: Creed, Country, Color, Class, Culture By Kwame Anthony Appiah 256 pp. Liveright Publishing. $27.95.

A Japanese-American political scientist and a Ghanaian-British-American philosopher walk into a bar where a brawl over identity is underway. “Stop fighting!” the philosopher cries. “The identities you’re fighting for are lies.” The political scientist steps forward. “They’re not lies,” he says. “They’re just the wrong identities to be fighting for!”

The scholars succeed in ending the conflict, because the brawlers leave for a less contentious bar.

The political scientist in my meh joke is Francis Fukuyama , who famously declared “the end of history,” and then, when history continued, said it depends on what the meaning of the word “end” is. The philosopher is Kwame Anthony Appiah , a cosmopolitan by background and choice who argues that we are all citizens of the world. The bar, sadly, is our brawling country — and others like it.

Here are a couple of sage Ph.D.s seeing if they might intervene in the identity wars now plaguing so many nations. Both books belong to one of today’s most important genres: the Not-About-Trump-But-Also-Sort-Of-About-Trump, or N.A.T.B.A.S.O.A.T., book. There is a hunger to understand this moment, but from a remove.

And both books help explain so much more than Trump. #MeToo. White nationalism. Hindu nationalism. Black Lives Matter. Campus debates about privilege and appropriation. Syria. Islamism. The spread of populism and retreat of democracy worldwide. The rise of the far right in Europe. The rise of the far left in the United States. All these phenomena throb with questions of identity, of “Who am I?” and “To what do I belong?” Appiah and Fukuyama seek out answers.

Appiah believes we’re in wars of identity because we keep making the same mistake: exaggerating our differences with others and our similarities with our own kind. We think of ourselves as part of monolithic tribes up against other tribes, whereas we each contain multitudes. Fukuyama, less a cosmopolitan and more a nation-state guy, has greater sympathy for people clinging to differences. He thinks it a natural response to our age — but also seems to believe that if we don’t find a way to subsume narrow identities into national ones, we’re all going to die.

Appiah begins “The Lies That Bind” by observing that he, a man of ambiguous identity, is constantly asked, “What are you?” His book is an exploration of why people feel a need to pin identities down — to essentialize — and how to escape the pinning.

Appiah’s project is to point out our most common errors in thinking about five types of identity, all conveniently beginning with the letter “c”: creed, country, color, class and culture. (This gimmick lends proof to his cosmopolitan idea: A British-born philosopher can also be an American salesman.)

Among the errors we make: On “c” No. 1, creed, we tend to think of religions as “sets of immutable beliefs” instead of as “mutable practices and communities.” We make religion a noun when it should really be a verb, which gives rise to fundamentalism. When religion is “revealed as an activity, not a thing,” it is easier to accept that “it’s the nature of activities to bring change.”

On country, we create “a forced choice between globalism and patriotism.” We prefer people with simple answers to the question “What are you?”; we disparage and deport those Appiah calls “the confessors of ambivalence.” We often forget that a modern, pluralist, liberal democracy like America is “not a fate but a project.”

On culture, he argues that we should “give up the very idea of Western civilization,” because the notion of a distinct Western essence — “individualistic and democratic and liberty-minded and tolerant and progressive and rational and scientific” — ignores basic facts about the West and everywhere else. But just as people on the left finish clapping at that, he decries the left’s complaints about “cultural appropriation,” because culture is too complex to have a clear chain of title and, he says, because “those who parse these transgressions in terms of ownership have accepted a commercial system that’s alien to the traditions they aim to protect.”

Appiah’s writing is often fresh, even beautiful: 19th-century scientists who tried to make the non-thing of race a thing were being “recruited to give content to color.” Fair warning, however: This book also traffics in a disconcerting amount of philosopher-speak — both the signposting tics of “I aim to persuade you that…” and substantive sentences like “Scholarly exegesis can also run athwart older ecclesiastic interpretations,” which risk turning away many who need this book.

If Appiah has a blind spot, it is in assuming that everyone can be as comfortably cosmopolitan as he. He quotes the Roman playwright Terence : “I am human, I think nothing human alien to me.” “Now there’s an identity that should bind us all,” he writes. But this vision is afflicted by the same misappraisal of others that Barack Obama’s father made when he returned to Kenya and dismissed its tribalisms as parochial and ended up a failure, according to Obama’s aunt . “If everyone is family, no one is family,” she told the future president. People like to belong to things small enough to feel.

Fukuyama is more sympathetic to that need in “Identity.” The assertion of particular identities, and the insistence that respect be paid to them, is a hallmark of our age. And it is, in his telling, not because people are bad at reasoning or narrow, but because of how discombobulating our age has been.

Globalization, the internet, automation, mass migration, the emergence of India and China, the financial crisis of 2008, the rise of women and their displacing of men in more service-oriented economies, the civil rights movement and the emancipation of other groups and the loss of status for white people — these are just some of what we have lived through of late. Yes, the world has gotten better for hundreds of millions. But Fukuyama reminds us that across much of the West, people have suffered dislocation and elites have captured the fruits.

Amid these changes, Fukuyama writes, identity politics has come to the fore, and it has become our common culture, no longer the province of a party or side. In American politics, for example, the left used to focus on economic equality, he argues, and the right on limited government. Today, the left concentrates on “promoting the interests of a wide variety of groups perceived as being marginalized,” whereas the right “is redefining itself as patriots who seek to protect traditional national identity, an identity that is often explicitly connected to race, ethnicity or religion.”

Fukuyama suggests that we are living in an era in which the sense of being dismissed, rather than material interest, is the locomotive of human affairs. The rulers of Russia, Hungary and China are driven by past national humiliations. Osama bin Laden was driven by the treatment of Palestinians. Black Lives Matter has been driven by the fatal disrespect of the police. And a large swath of the American right, which claims to loathe identity politics, is driven by its own perception of being dissed.

Unlike many avuncular critics of identity politics, Fukuyama is sympathetic to the good such politics does — above all, making the privileged aware of their effect on marginalized groups. “Outsiders to those groups often fail to perceive the harm they are doing by their actions,” he writes.

Fukuyama does have his criticisms, however. He fears identity politics “has become a cheap substitute for serious thinking about how to reverse the 30-year trend in most liberal democracies toward greater socioeconomic inequality.” Fukuyama worries that the “woker” the left gets on identity issues, the weaker it gets on offering a critique of capitalism.

Unlike Appiah, Fukuyama doesn’t seem to think it’s possible or desirable for humans to see themselves as human before all else. He is a believer in the nation-state as a healthy unit of human affairs, and he spends the final part of his smart, crisp book exploring how countries can cultivate “integrative national identities” that are rooted in liberal and democratic values — identities large enough to be inclusive, but small enough to give people a real sense of agency over their society.

A low-key shortcoming of Fukuyama’s book is that, like Appiah’s, it is a book about books about books. On the one hand, theorists gotta theorize. On the other, with an issue so fraught and a world so full of rage, each author could have made good use of a rental car and the Voice Memos app. For all their strengths, both books lack the earth and funk and complexity of dreaming, hurting human beings.

We need more thinkers as wise as Appiah and Fukuyama digging their fingers into the soil of our predicament. And we need more readers reading what they harvest.

Anand Giridharadas is the author of “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World.”

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Recent posts, subscribe here, more expert advice, let's get existential: how to write a college essay about identity.

When you’re a teenager, you’re probably too busy to sit down and think about your own identity. No one exactly assigns you “introspection time” as homework (though, if you’re my student, this has very likely happened). So when you start working on your college essays, it might be the first time you truly start thinking about how you can express who you are in a way that will help a group of strangers understand something about you. Let’s be honest—it feels like a lot of pressure to sum up your identity in 250 words or less. But we’re here to help.

There are many different types of application essays you’ll need to write, as my colleague Annie so perfectly laid out here . But we’re going to talk about one type in particular: the essays about identity and diversity. These are powerful college essays that give admissions officers an opportunity to glimpse into your daily life and understand your unique experiences. For some students, though, these essays can be daunting to think about and write.  

Ever wonder why colleges are asking these questions? Well, the simple answer is that they want to get to know you more. Aside from your academic interests, your activities, and your accomplishments in the classroom, there really isn’t that much space to talk about things like your ethnic background, religion, gender identity, or local community. And these are things colleges want to know about you, too!

How Do You Write a Good Identity and Diversity Essay?

Before you start writing, let’s define a few terms you might run into while drafting your college essays about identity and diversity.

Who are you? I know what you’re thinking—it’s way too early in the morning to get this existential. I hear you. But let’s break this down. Identity is made up of many qualities: personality, culture, ethnic or racial background, sexual orientation, gender, physical ability, and linguistic background, among others. Maybe you identify really strongly with the religion on Mom’s side of the family, but not Dad’s. Maybe you speak a language not typical of folks from your culture. Maybe you have recently come into your gender identity and finally feel like yourself. Why is that identity important to the way you define who you are? Think of it like this: If you’ve met someone new, and your goal is to help them get to know you in the shortest amount of time possible, how would you be able to accomplish this? What’s your tagline? That’s how you’ll want to tackle this type of college essay.

Diversity  

One individual person can’t be diverse. But when a college is referring to diversity, they’re usually looking to their student body and asking how you, as an individual with your own identity, can add to their diversity. What experiences have you had in your life that might help you make the student body more diverse? Have you dealt with dyslexia and come to terms with how best to learn, keeping your abilities in mind? If so, how can you contribute to other students who might learn differently? Did you grow up as the oldest of 10 siblings and have to take care of them on a daily basis? What kind of responsibilities did you have and how did that influence you? These don’t need to be visible qualities. The goal of the diversity college essay is to understand how these identifying factors can help you contribute to a school in a way they haven’t seen before.  

Let’s define community. You may associate it with the city or neighborhood you live in. But a community doesn’t have to be geographical. It doesn’t even have to be formal. Community can come from that sense of connection you have with like-minded people. It can be built with people you’ve shared experiences with. So, when we think of community in this sense, we could be thinking about the community that exists within your apartment complex. We could be thinking about the youth group at your mosque. We could be thinking about your little group of artists within your science and tech magnet school. Think about what communities you are a part of, and be prepared to talk about your place within them.

You might think that these questions are only being asked by small liberal arts schools—but that’s not true. Bigger schools and colleges also want to get to know all of the thousands of students they’re bringing to campus as part of their class.

Big Name Colleges that Care About Diversity

To give you a glimpse of the variety, here are a few examples of college essays where these identity and diversity may come into play:

University of Michigan

“Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it.”

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

“Expand on an aspect of your identity (for example, your religion, culture, race, sexual or gender identity, affinity group, etc.). How has this aspect of your identity shaped your life experiences thus far?”

Pomona College

“Tell us about an experience when you dealt with disagreement or conflict around different perspectives within a community.”

Sarah Lawrence College

“Sarah Lawrence College's community places strong value in inclusion and diversity. In 250-500 words, tell us about what you value in a community and how your perspective, lived experiences, or beliefs might contribute to your College community.”

Remember what these colleges are trying to understand: who you are and what has influenced you to become the person you are today (identity), where you come from (community), and how you might be able to add to the diversity of their college campus. Once you really get to the core and understand the intent of these types of college essays, you’ll absolutely be able to write in an earnest and genuine way. We say this frequently at Collegewise, but it’s worth repeating here, especially when it comes to essays about identity and diversity. Just be yourself.

About Us:  With more than twenty years of experience, Collegewise counselors and tutors are at the forefront of the ever-evolving admissions landscape. Our work has always centered on you: the student. And just like we’ve always done, we look for ways for you to be your best self - whether it’s in the classroom, in your applications or in the right-fit college environment. Our range of tools include  counseling ,  test prep ,  academic tutoring , and essay management, all with the support of our proprietary platform , leading to a 4x higher than average admissions rates. 

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How to Write an Essay on Identity

David stewart, 25 jun 2018.

Who are you? How do your peers and community view you? Thinking through the answers to those questions in an identity essay is a way to explore, discover and share your own identity perceptions. The purpose of an identity essay is to answer questions about who you are, how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you as well. For an identity essay to have impact, it should cover different facets of your identity from your name's origin to your character, principles and values. Your friends, family, community and culture are also part of your identity. They are a part of shaping your identity as well and an integral part to your essay. Exploring your personal life thoroughly helps you understand the impact of people and experiences in forming your own identity. A well-written identity essay tells the reader how you view yourself as well as the role in finding that identity related to the people and experiences in your life.

Explore this article

• Essay Thesis
• Essay Outline
• Essay Draft
• Essay Revisions

1 Essay Thesis

First, compose the thesis for your essay. The thesis is the central theme on which your whole essay will be based on. As you create your thesis, think about what aspect of your identity you want to explore. This thought process could include analyzing your cultural background or how you feel your peers view you as a person. Determine the relevance of the thesis idea you choose by analyzing how much it has contributed to the formation of your current identity.

2 Essay Outline

Next, prepare an essay outline. In this outline, consider and lay out a plan what you plan to include about yourself, your beliefs and your family to organize the overall structure and content of your essay.

3 Essay Draft

Write the first draft of your essay after you complete the outline. Start with the introduction revolving around your thesis and explain what you will be exploring in the essay. Fill out the body of the essay with more information and examples that provide background to the theme. Conclude the essay by looking back on and recapping what you included in the other sections.

4 Essay Revisions

Revise the essay as needed to create connections among ideas and a clear picture of yourself. Add transition phrases like "on the other hand" and "similarly" to illustrate relationships between included concepts and details. Develop your essay with strong details to express your thoughts on your identity and how you think people perceive you. Look at all the aspects of your life that contribute to your identity. Doing this will help strengthen the essay with supporting details that engage your reader.

5 Proofread

Review your essay after finishing. Have a friend or peer proofread it for spelling, grammar and clarity. While many written essays would also require a look at facts presented and research, an identity essay may also need that same reader to give you feedback on how you present yourself in the essay. If the editor you choose is open to the process, also ask her to give you feedback on the identify your portray for yourself in the essay. Integrate edits into your essay as you find them necessary and appropriate and then create the final draft.

• 1 Purdue Online Writing Lab: Essay Writing

About the Author

Hailing out of Pittsburgh, Pa., David Stewart has been writing articles since 2004, specializing in consumer-oriented pieces. He holds an associate degree in specialized technology from the Pittsburgh Technical Institute.

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Where Does Identity Come From?

Fifty years of psychology offers insights into our self-concepts..

Posted July 23, 2022 | Reviewed by Vanessa Lancaster

• Comparisons with others and reflections on our experiences form our sense of identity.
• Through psychology's various lenses, we have studied the extent to which we see ourselves through comparisons or internal observations.
• Ultimately, some people see themselves more through comparisons; others use an internal taxonomy.

On July 21st, David Brooks wrote a column for The New York Times addressing the question of whether our lives are motivated by a quest for “status,” basically a comparison with others in which we emerge with a ranking and continually seek superiority, or “story,” building a sense of identity based on our own specific background, experiences, gifts and challenges, values, and reflections.

The Brooks essay brought me back to one of the earliest questions I explored in psychology: What contributes to our senses of identity?

Fifty years ago, psychology was divided into subspecialties. Developmental experts like Jerome Kagan or Sandra Scarr asked about nature/nurture: how much of our personality and later character comes from biological givens (complete with genetic heritage), and how much from experiences and maturity? How malleable are we? Learning laboratories asked, “How does change take place?” Motivation researchers looked at pleasure and pain.

Soon ego psychologists like Jeanne and Jack Block or Erik Erikson focused on the intrinsic rewards of mastery.

Personality psychologists dove into the phenomenology of “flow” (Csikszentmihaly) or conditions that underscore or interfere with “ intrinsic motivation ” (Mark Lepper). The importance of play in development, especially its role in capacity for and respect for creative activity, was clear by the early 1980s.

A whole branch of personality psychologists broke off from the mainstream, seeking to label personality dimensions, their antecedents, and consequences. Instead, they focused on the “stories of lives.”

Early psycho-biographers like Dan McAdams or William Runyan often closely resembled clinicians who studied the uniqueness of individuals, how they made sense of their lives, and how they could become more conscious of the sources of their emotions, beliefs, and behaviors.

Some of this study was more theoretical, viewed through and updating propositions from Freud , Jung, or Allport. Other researchers branched off, focusing on specific aspects of identity, like unconscious power, a transcendent reality that energetically directed attraction , or family dynamics and the impact of close relationships, for better or worse.

Social psychologists reached into the family and beyond to look for relationship qualities and Individual factors that rendered them more or less influential. Two of my favorites are Bill McGuire, who examined a tendency to compare ourselves with others in our social fields, and J. Richard Hackman crafted a brilliant theory about “The influences of groups on individuals.”

In the classroom, Hackman argued, “The groups you join will inevitably influence who you are and who you become; choose them carefully.” Implied in his advice was an assumption that people are capable of conscious choice and “ free will ,” even in the context of powerful forces that pull to manipulate how we behave.

Throughout all, Henry Murray’s question has been re-addressed and rephrased: “How are all people in some ways like all other people, in some ways like some other people, in some ways like no other people.” Underlying this question is that of identity: To what extent do we see ourselves as part of humanity, part of various groups, or unique because of our own genetic makeup and experiences that have interacted with it?

Thus Brooks’s question: is identity crafted through comparisons in status across social fields or from a specific story massaged by historical events and potentially directed through conscious choice?

My language pyramid again offers at least seven perspectives:

• Cells: Are we about our physics and chemistry, the neurons that light up or chemicals that flood and direct us when we are attracted to or repelled by a possible (or actual) experience? Today’s interest in neuropsychology is enormous.
• Organs: Do our organs direct our impulses and choices -skin that tingles when touched or a heart that quickens with excitement? A stomach that revolts in disgust or facial muscles that freeze with fear ?
• Biological systems: Is our perception of “meaning” drawn from muscular tension that calls us to fight, flee or freeze? Or a sense of connection with others when the parasympathetic nervous system sends oxytocin (the “hugging” hormone ) coursing across our limbs?
• Psychological level : Is our “identity” based on labeling these biological experiences — as “pleasure” or “pain,” as “good” or “bad,” assigning value to “ stress ,” “grit,” or “struggle” or, conversely, to “relaxation,” “receiving,” or “connecting”? Do we see ourselves as our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and choices?
• Social psychological: Do we look around, generate, and imagine “possible selves”? Then seek to create or avoid their realization, as explored by Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius?
• Culture. In the 1970s, Rokeach created a list of “values” based on experiences that could motivate or guide behavior. He compared them across cultures. Some values were more solitary, like “ wisdom ” or “freedom,” others rooted in an interpersonal field (for example, “mature love” or ”true friendship ” ), and still others in potential status by comparison (e.g., “success” or “national security”).

Generations know the latter through the When Harry Met Sally scene with the line “I’ll have what she’s having.” We read books, watch movies, follow social media stories, or simply watch others who influence our notions about current or future identities. They clarify possibilities and help us select direction so that, at choice points in our lives, we can enlist consciousness to help direct us by providing options based on examples of others, for good or for bad.

• Spiritual . The alternative is to find inspiration or guidance from our own lives or an ideal.

I grew up with no idea what actually did make people happy. My fantasies were fueled by advertisements designed to manipulate emotions and direct people to buy things based on hopes of avoiding pain or increasing pleasures. But only time, experimentation, and happenstance were able to teach me what actually does make me suffer, feel joy in delight, or thrills in mastery.

The love that filled my heart and made it expand in capacity over the years as I have watched my children and now grandchildren grow and become the unique people they are becoming never ceases to bring me awe , hope, and gratitude .

The emptiness that has sometimes accompanied an experience recommended by critics or peers, rated as “a must,” has helped me learn to respect my judgment. Following these breadcrumbs has helped me become the person I want to be. What more could I ask for?

Copyright 2022 Roni Beth Tower

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975). Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Hackman, J. R. (1992). Group influences on individuals in organizations. In M. D. Dunnette & L. M. Hough (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 199–267). Consulting Psychologists Press.

Markus, H., & Nurius, P. (1986). Possible selves. American Psychologist , 41 (9), 954–969. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.41.9.954

McGuire WJ, Padawer-Singer A. Trait salience in the spontaneous self-concept. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 33 : 743-54. PMID 1271234 DOI: 10.1037//0022-3514.33.6.743

Rokeach, M. (1973). The nature of human values . Free Press.

Runyan, W.M. (1982). Life Histories and Psychobiography, Oxford University Press.

Singer, Dorothy & Singer, Jerome. (1990). The House of Make-Believe: Children’s Play and the Developing Imagination. 10.4159/9780674043688.

Roni Beth Tower, PhD, a retired clinical, research and academic psychologist, earned a BA from Barnard (Religion), her PhD from Yale, and did postdoctoral work in epidemiology and public health at Yale Medical School.

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simple essay writing tips

Great Identity Essay Writing Tips & 20 Topic Ideas

Among the essays encountered in your academic life, an identity essay proves the most challenging. Although many people can effortlessly write about their dog (Tommy), their family, and their best day, defining oneself often proves a challenge.

What defines me? Where do I start with my identity essay? If you were struggling with writing a self-identity essay, you are at the right place. This article will analyze the approach for writing a college essay about identity and offer some identity essay topics to guide your topic selection. 

What is an identity essay?

A self-identity essay is an essay geared toward explaining your beliefs, personality, and interests to a reader. This analytical narrative encapsulates your highlights in life and reactions to how various moments define you. 

Simply put, a self-identity essay is a narrative about yourself. 

How to write an identity essay

Often, students take the identity essay lightly seeing they are the subject of the narrative. Many often end up surprised at how hard it is to define oneself and confused as to where to start. Let’s look at the approach to writing an identity essay and some tips to start your paper.

Process of writing an identity essay

You are a product of your experiences from childhood up to this moment. Although each moment has led to the person you are, some experiences have provided much bearing to your life. 

Bearing this in mind, it is great to coalesce all the moments you find meaningful and organize your narrative before you put the pen on paper. The failure to do this may result in a paper lacking flow as you pursue the fond memories that spring in mind as you write your essay.

After jotting your key moments, organize them to achieve flow and lead towards the key idea on which you want to base your identity. Are you looking to define your empathy, persistence, or perseverance? Plan your experiences to highlight how this attribute was developed and how it currently defines you.

With your outline ready, you can proceed to write your work while adding the necessary information to make your narrative catchy. The draft allows you to gauge the gaps in your narrative, allowing you to fix your paper before submitting the final draft. 

An error-laden paper does little good in the way of your final score. After writing your paper, set aside time to proofread your work and fix any grammatical and structural errors. 

How to start a cultural identity essay

Often, students find themselves stuck with ‘I am, ‘I do’ openings in their essays and thus fail to hook a reader. Like other essays, the introduction for an essay on identity and culture should whet your reader’s appetite into knowing more about you. 

Some of the best methods to start an identity essay include:

• A famous quote

e.g.  We are defined not by our birth name but rather by our actions and although our name is often used to refer to us, our personality is what makes an image in the minds of people we interact with. In my case, I have come to discover an innate fondness for making people feel better about themselves. A need to elevate one’s confidence for I have experienced the downward spiral of lacking self-esteem.  

• Rhetorical questions

e.g.  In what way is an individual unique from a crowd? Are we not the product of our surroundings? Does our self-identity surpass our surname and fashion taste? Are we defined by our failures, achievements, interests, or actions? I believe that we are made unique by our actions and not by our failures. 

Tips for writing a self-identity essay

• Select a narrow idea that can highlight the traits you want to define within the provided word count. 
• Use definitive words to paint an image in your reader’s mind. 
• Use transitions to achieve a sense of flow in your narrative
• Proofread your paper to eliminate various errors

Essay topics on identity

Interesting identity essay topics.

• Racial identity – identity development process 
• Why do teenagers need to forge their unique identities? 
• How does your favorite music shape your individuality? 
• What traits, attitudes, and actions make up a man’s identity? 
• Identity and art 
• Personality development and the things that most impact it

Cultural identity essay topics

• Who are you now, and where do you envision yourself in the next 15 years? 
• The concept of your identity throughout your life
• What part does your family have in the development of your personality? 
• Cultural identification and socialization’s significance in learning 
• Globalization’s effect on identity and culture 

Gender identity essay topics

• What are by far the most vital elements of identity and culture?
• How does culture influence identity? 
• How childhood cultural experiences shape personality?
• Why should you think about cultural identity when making commercials? 

Personal identity essay topics

• Ethnic background serves as a prism through which people see other aspects of society
• Social identity and self-identity: transgender community issues
• Religion’s influence on self-identity 
• The importance of cultural identity preservation 
• Understanding personal identity’s importance

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Essays about Culture and Identity: 9 Examples And Prompts

Writing essays about culture and identity will help you explore your understanding of it. Here are examples that will give you inspiration for your next essay.

Culture can refer to customs, traditions, beliefs, lifestyles, laws, artistic expressions, and other elements that cultivate the collective identity. Different cultures are established across nations, regions, communities, and social groups. They are passed on from generation to generation while others evolve or are abolished to give way to modern beliefs and systems.

While our cultural identity begins at home, it changes as we involve ourselves with other groups (friends, educational institutions, social media communities, political groups, etc.) Culture is a very relatable subject as every person is part of a culture or at least can identify with one. Because it spans broad coverage, there are several interesting cultural subjects to write about.

Our culture and identity are dynamic. This is why you may find it challenging to write about it. To spark your inspiration, check out our picks of the best culture essays. 

1. Sweetness and Light by Matthew Arnolds

2. how auto-tune revolutionized the sound of popular music by simon reynolds, 3. how immigration changes language by john mcwhorter, 4. the comfort zone: growing up with charlie brown by jonathan franzen, 5. culture and identity definition by sandra graham, 6. how culture and surroundings influence identity by jeanette lucas, 7. how the food we eat reflects our culture and identity by sophia stephens, 8. identity and culture: my identity, culture, and identity by april casas, 9. how america hinders the cultural identity of their own citizens by seth luna, 1. answer the question, “who am i”, 2. causes of culture shock, 3. your thoughts on dystopia and utopia, 4. gender inequality from a global perspective, 5. the most interesting things you learned from other cultures, 6. the relationship between cultural identity and clothes, 7. describe your culture, 8. what is the importance of honoring your roots , 9. how can a person adapt to a new culture, 10. what artistic works best express your country’s culture, 11. how has social media influenced human interaction, 12. how do you protect the cultures of indigenous peoples, 13. are k-pop and k-drama sensations effectively promoting korea’s culture , 14. what is the importance of cultural diversity.

“… [A]nd when every man may say what he likes, our aspirations ought to be satisfied. But the aspirations of culture, which is the study of perfection, are not satisfied, unless what men say, when they may say what they like, is worth saying,—has good in it, and more good than bad.”

Arnolds compels a re-examination of values at a time when England is leading global industrialization and beginning to believe that greatness is founded on material progress. 

The author elaborates why culture, the strive for a standard of perfection, is not merely driven by scientific passions and, more so, by materialistic affluence. As he esteems religion as “that voice of the deepest human experience” to harmonize men in establishing that ideal society, Arnolds stresses that culture is the effort to “make reason and the will of God prevail” while humanizing gained knowledge to be society’s source of “sweetness and light.”

“Few innovations in sound production have been simultaneously so reviled and so revolutionary. Epoch-defining or epoch-defacing, Auto-Tune is indisputably the sound of the 21st century so far.”

Reynolds shows how Auto-Tune has shaped a pop music genre that has cut across cultures. The article maps out the music landscape Auto-Tune created and examines its impact on the culture of song productions and the modern taste for music. While the author debunks accusations that Auto-Tune destroyed the “natural” process of creating music, he also points out that the technology earned its reverence with big thanks to society’s current custom of using technology to hide blemishes and other imperfections.

Looking for more? Check out these essays about culture shock .

“… [T]he heavy immigration that countries like Italy are experiencing will almost certainly birth new kinds of Italian that are rich with slang, somewhat less elaborate than the standard, and… widely considered signs of linguistic deterioration, heralding a future where the “original” standard language no longer exists.”

American linguist McWhorter pacifies fears over the death of “standard” languages amid the wave of immigration to Europe. On the contrary, language is a vital expression of a culture, and for some, preserving is tantamount to upholding a cultural standard. 

However, instead of seeing the rise of new “multiethnolects” such as the Black English in America and Kiezdeutsch in Germany as threats to language and culture, McWhorter sees them as a new way to communicate and better understand the social groups that forayed these new languages.

“I wonder why “cartoonish” remains such a pejorative. It took me half my life to achieve seeing my parents as cartoons. And to become more perfectly a cartoon myself: what a victory that would be.”

This essay begins with a huge fight between Franzen’s brother and father to show how the cultural generation gap sweeping the 60s has hit closer to home. This generation gap, where young adults were rejecting the elders’ old ways in pursuit of a new and better culture, will also be the reason why his family ends up drifting apart. Throughout the essay, Franzen treads this difficult phase in his youth while narrating fondly how Peanuts, a pop culture icon at the time, was his source of escape. 

“…Culture is… your background… and Identity is formed where you belong to… Leopold Sedar Senghor and Shirley Geok-Lin Lim both talks about how culture and identity can impact… society…”

In this essay, Graham uses “To New York” by Senghor and “Learning To Love America” by Lim as two pieces of literature that effectively describe the role of culture and identity to traveling individuals. 

The author refers to Sengho’s reminder that people can adapt but must not forget their culture even if they go to a different place or country. On the other hand, Lim discusses immigrants’ struggle to have double identities.

“Culture is something that surrounds all of us and progress to shape our lives every day… Identity is illustrated as the state of mind in which someone or something distinguishes their own character traits that lead to determining who they really are, what they represent.”

Lucas is keen on giving examples of how his culture and surroundings influence an individual’s identity. She refers to Kothari’s “If you are what you eat, then what am I?” which discusses Kothari’s search for her identity depending on what food she eats. Food defines a person’s culture and identity, so Kothari believes that eating food from different countries will change his identity.

Lucas also refers to “Down These Mean Streets” by Piri Thomas, which argues how different cultural and environmental factors affect us. Because of what we encounter, there is a possibility that we will become someone who we are not. 

“What we grow is who we are. What we buy is who we are. What we eat is who we are.”

Stephens’ essay teaches its readers that the food we grow and eat defines us as a person. She explains that growing a crop and harvesting it takes a lot of effort, dedication, and patience, which mirrors our identity. 

Another metaphor she used is planting rice: it takes skills and knowledge to make it grow. Cooking rice is more accessible than cultivating it – you can quickly cook rice by boiling it in water. This reflects people rich in culture and tradition but who lives simpler life. 

“Every single one has their own unique identity and culture. Culture plays a big role in shaping your identity. Culture is what made me the person I am today and determines who or what I choose to associate myself with.”

Casas starts her piece by questioning who she is. In trying to learn and define who she is, she writes down and describes herself and her personality throughout the essay. Finally, she concludes that her culture is a big part of her identity, and she must understand it to understand herself.

“When it comes to these stereotypes we place on each other, a lot of the time, we succumb to the stereotypes given to us. And our cultural identity is shaped by these expectations and labels others give us. That is why negative stereotypes sometimes become true for a whole group or community.”

In this essay, Luna talks about how negative stereotyping in the United States led to moral distortion. For example, Americans are assumed to be ignorant of other countries’ cultures, making it difficult to understand other people’s cultures and lifestyles. 

She believes that stereotyping can significantly affect an individual or group’s identity. She suggests Americans should improve their intellectual competence by being sensitive to other people’s cultures.

14 Prompts on Essays about Culture and Identity

You can discuss many things on the subject of culture and identity. To give you a starting point, here are some prompts to help you write an exciting essay about culture. 

If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips and our round-up of the best essay checkers .

Understanding your personality is vital since continuous interaction with others can affect your personality. Write about your culture and identity; what is your personality? How do you define yourself? Everyone is unique, so by writing an essay about who you are, you’ll be able to understand why you act a certain way and connect with readers who have the same values. 

Here’s a guide on writing a descriptive essay to effectively relay your experience to your readers.

Sometimes, people need to get out of their comfort zone and interact with other individuals with different cultures, beliefs, or traditions. This is to broaden one’s perspective about the world. Aside from discussing what you’ve learned in that journey, you can also focus on the bits that shocked you. 

You can talk about a tradition or value that you found so bizarre because it differs from your culture. Then add how you processed it and finally adapted to it.

Dystopia and Utopia are both imagined worlds. Dystopia is a world where people live in the worst or most unfavorable conditions, while Utopia is the opposite. 

You can write an essay about what you think a Dystopian or Utopian world may look like, how these societies will affect their citizens, etc. Then, consider what personality citizens of each world may have to depend on the two worlds’ cultures.

Today, more and more people are fighting for others to accept or at least respect the LGBTQ+ community. However, countries, territories, and religions still question their rights.

In your essay, you can talk about why these institutions react the way they do and how culture dictates someone’s identity in the wrong way. Before creating your own, feel free to read other essays and articles to learn more about the global gender inequality issue. 

The world has diverse cultures, traditions, and values. When you travel to a new place, learning and writing about your firsthand experiences with unique cultures and rituals will always be an interesting read.

In this prompt, you’ll research other cultures and how they shaped their group’s identity. Then, write about the most exciting aspects you’ve learned, why you found them fascinating, and how they differ from your culture.

Those proud of their culture will wear clothes inspired by them. Some wear the same clothes even if they aren’t from the same culture. The debate over cultural appropriation and culture appreciation is still a hot topic. 

In this essay, you may start with the traditions of your community or observances your family celebrates and gathers for. Then, elaborate on their origins and describe how your community or family is preserving these practices. 

Learning about your roots, ancestors, and family cultures can help strengthen your understanding of your identity and foster respect for other cultures. Explore this topic and offer examples of what others have learned. Has the journey always been a positive experience? Delve into this question for an engaging and interesting essay.

When a person moves country, it can be challenging to adapt to a new culture. If there are new people at work or school, you can interview them and ask how they are coping with their new environment. How different is this from what they have been used to, and what unique traditions do they find interesting?

Focus on an art piece that is a source of pride and identity to your country’s culture, much like the Tinikling of the Philippines or the Matryoshka dolls of Russia. Explore its origins and evolution up to its current manifestation and highlight efforts that are striving to protect and promote these artistic works.

The older generation did not have computers in their teen years. Ask about how they dated in their younger years and how they made friends. Contrast how the younger generation is building their social networks today. Write what culture of socialization works better for you and explain why.

Take in-depth navigation of existing policies that protect indigenous peoples. Are they sufficient to serve these communities needs, and are they being implemented effectively? There is also the challenge of balancing the protection of these traditions against the need to protect the environment, as some indigenous practices add to the carbon footprint. How is your government dealing with this challenge?

A large population is now riding the Hallyu or the Korean pop culture, with many falling in love with the artists and Korea’s food, language, and traditional events. Research how certain Korean films, TV series, or music have effectively attracted fans to experience Korea’s culture. Write about what countries can learn from Korea in promoting their own cultures.

Environments that embrace cultural diversity are productive and innovative. To start your essay, assess how diverse your workplace or school is. Then, write your personal experiences where working with co-workers or classmates from different cultures led to new and innovative ideas and projects. Combine this with the personal experiences of your boss or the principal to see how your environment benefits from hosting a melting pot of cultures.

If you aim for your article to effectively change readers’ perspectives and align with your opinion, read our guide to achieving persuasive writing . 

Aisling is an Irish journalist and content creator with a BA in Journalism & New Media. She has bylines in OK! Magazine, Metro, The Inquistr, and the Irish Examiner. She loves to read horror and YA. Find Aisling on LinkedIn .

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Cultural Identity Essay

27 August, 2020

12 minutes read

Author:  Elizabeth Brown

No matter where you study, composing essays of any type and complexity is a critical component in any studying program. Most likely, you have already been assigned the task to write a cultural identity essay, which is an essay that has to do a lot with your personality and cultural background. In essence, writing a cultural identity essay is fundamental for providing the reader with an understanding of who you are and which outlook you have. This may include the topics of religion, traditions, ethnicity, race, and so on. So, what shall you do to compose a winning cultural identity essay?

Cultural Identity Paper: Definitions, Goals & Topics 

Before starting off with a cultural identity essay, it is fundamental to uncover what is particular about this type of paper. First and foremost, it will be rather logical to begin with giving a general and straightforward definition of a cultural identity essay. In essence, cultural identity essay implies outlining the role of the culture in defining your outlook, shaping your personality, points of view regarding a multitude of matters, and forming your qualities and beliefs. Given a simpler definition, a cultural identity essay requires you to write about how culture has influenced your personality and yourself in general. So in this kind of essay you as a narrator need to give an understanding of who you are, which strengths you have, and what your solid life position is.

Yet, the goal of a cultural identity essay is not strictly limited to describing who you are and merely outlining your biography. Instead, this type of essay pursues specific objectives, achieving which is a perfect indicator of how high-quality your essay is. Initially, the primary goal implies outlining your cultural focus and why it makes you peculiar. For instance, if you are a french adolescent living in Canada, you may describe what is so special about it: traditions of the community, beliefs, opinions, approaches. Basically, you may talk about the principles of the society as well as its beliefs that made you become the person you are today.

So far, cultural identity is a rather broad topic, so you will likely have a multitude of fascinating ideas for your paper. For instance, some of the most attention-grabbing topics for a personal cultural identity essay are:

• Memorable traditions of your community
• A cultural event that has influenced your personality 
• Influential people in your community
• Locations and places that tell a lot about your culture and identity

Cultural Identity Essay Structure

As you might have already guessed, composing an essay on cultural identity might turn out to be fascinating but somewhat challenging. Even though the spectrum of topics is rather broad, the question of how to create the most appropriate and appealing structure remains open.

Like any other kind of an academic essay, a cultural identity essay must compose of three parts: introduction, body, and concluding remarks. Let’s take a more detailed look at each of the components:

Introduction 

Starting to write an essay is most likely one of the most time-consuming and mind-challenging procedures. Therefore, you can postpone writing your introduction and approach it right after you finish body paragraphs. Nevertheless, you should think of a suitable topic as well as come up with an explicit thesis. At the beginning of the introduction section, give some hints regarding the matter you are going to discuss. You have to mention your thesis statement after you have briefly guided the reader through the topic. You can also think of indicating some vital information about yourself, which is, of course, relevant to the topic you selected.

Your main body should reveal your ideas and arguments. Most likely, it will consist of 3-5 paragraphs that are more or less equal in size. What you have to keep in mind to compose a sound ‘my cultural identity essay’ is the argumentation. In particular, always remember to reveal an argument and back it up with evidence in each body paragraph. And, of course, try to stick to the topic and make sure that you answer the overall question that you stated in your topic. Besides, always keep your thesis statement in mind: make sure that none of its components is left without your attention and argumentation.

Conclusion 

Finally, after you are all finished with body paragraphs and introduction, briefly summarize all the points in your final remarks section. Paraphrase what you have already revealed in the main body, and make sure you logically lead the reader to the overall argument. Indicate your cultural identity once again and draw a bottom line regarding how your culture has influenced your personality.

Best Tips For Writing Cultural Identity Essay

Writing a ‘cultural identity essay about myself’ might be somewhat challenging at first. However, you will no longer struggle if you take a couple of plain tips into consideration. Following the tips below will give you some sound and reasonable cultural identity essay ideas as well as make the writing process much more pleasant:

• Start off by creating an outline. The reason why most students struggle with creating a cultural identity essay lies behind a weak structure. The best way to organize your ideas and let them flow logically is to come up with a helpful outline. Having a reference to build on is incredibly useful, and it allows your essay to look polished.
• Remember to write about yourself. The task of a cultural identity essay implies not focusing on your culture per se, but to talk about how it shaped your personality. So, switch your focus to describing who you are and what your attitudes and positions are. 
• Think of the most fundamental cultural aspects. Needless to say, you first need to come up with a couple of ideas to be based upon in your paper. So, brainstorm all the possible ideas and try to decide which of them deserve the most attention. In essence, try to determine which of the aspects affected your personality the most.
• Edit and proofread before submitting your paper. Of course, the content and the coherence of your essay’s structure play a crucial role. But the grammatical correctness matters a lot too. Even if you are a native speaker, you may still make accidental errors in the text. To avoid the situation when unintentional mistakes spoil the impression from your essay, always double check your cultural identity essay. 

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Identity is an intriguing concept with a plurality of applications and meanings that make it attractive but also contested. Associated with questions such as “Who am I?” all the way to “Would I sacrifice for my community?” identity reflects multiple associations and dissociations, including, while not limited to, ethnicity, nationality, social class, gender, sexuality, and religion. One of the most influential concepts across social sciences and the humanities, identity has particular resonance to media and communications, especially as it raises important questions about media power: Is identity reflected or shaped in the media? What are the implications of media representations for different groups and their identities? Do media enhance understanding or hatred toward others? These questions have enduring relevance, but answering them has become increasingly complex, especially as media diversify, exposure to proximate and distant others expands, and digital connections—asymmetrically but effectively—manage spaces of belonging within and across physical boundaries.

A concept that is malleable, identity is used in academia, as much as it is used in everyday and political contexts. In everyday life, it primarily relates to the presentation of the self to others: identity is no less than an ordinary performance, Erving Goffman argues ( 1969 ). The ways people dress in public or present themselves in social media are about performing identity and finding ways to locate the self(-identity) in the world (social identity) through acts that are socially recognized as carrying certain meanings. Thus identity is as much about self-making as it about the position individuals take in social systems. As Paul Gilroy puts it, there is a constant “interplay between our subjective experience of the world and the cultural and historical settings in which that fragile subjectivity is formed” ( 1997, 301 ). This dialectic becomes most evident when identity is mobilized to support political claims, or even to justify violence. Propaganda radio broadcasts in Nazi Germany and during the Rwandan genocide projected the “purity” of German and Hutu identities respectively against “impure” and “inferior” identities of the Other ( Appadurai 2006 ). Either in responding to or in shaping powerful narratives of identity, propaganda radio did in the twentieth century what extremist websites do at present: symbolically mark identity and difference through powerful mediated discourses and imagery.

As these examples reveal, the relationship between identity construction and media and communications is long-standing and prominent. Many argue that this relationship’s significance has grown in time, not least as opportunities for identification with communities (e.g., fans), places (e.g., cities), and cultures (e.g., celebrities) have multiplied due to the digital expansion of media technological affordances and representations. This claim gains more validity especially if we examine it in relation to three key macro-processes associated with the organization of contemporary social and cultural life: globalization, migration, and mediation. Each of these macro-processes has implications for identity, some of which are captured by three concepts that have gained eminence in analyses of identity and in relation to these macro-processes: reflexivity, hybridity, and performativity. Not unlike the concept of identity itself, these concepts—which can also be considered as conditions of identity formation—have wider and global relevance, though their particular meanings are always contextual and particular. As Stuart Hall puts it, identities “are subject to the continuous ‘play’ of history, culture and power” ( 1990, 223 ). Thus, questions of identity are best understood at the juncture of macro-processes that make history and society and the distinct and particular micro-processes of everyday life—what in social sciences is vividly captured through the debate of structure (given norms and limits) versus agency (individual capacity to make choices).

Debates on the relation between structure and agency raise critical questions: How much control do individuals have over their own identities? How reflexive and aware are they of their choices? Anthony Giddens (1991) responds to the binary opposition of “structure versus agency” by proposing their dialectic interdependence. Identity matters and involves a process of reflexivity : individuals make decisions based on their awareness of norms and boundaries and while mobilizing their capacity to negotiate and even resist such structural boundaries and norms ( Giddens 1991 ). Audience research has supported such arguments. David Morley’s now classic study of The Nationwide Audience ( 1980 ) demonstrates that class identities were central to interpretation of television programming, while more recent research emphasizes the role of gender, ethnic, and national identities in negotiating media norms and values ( Georgiou 2006 ; Nightingale 2014 ). These discussions also recognize that individuals’ and groups’ reflexive engagement with the media has grown in complexity at global times.

Globalization has challenged traditional societies, not least through the faster and wider circulation of information on different cultures, subcultures, and value systems. The more information becomes available to people about the particularity of their own identity visà-vis the range of other identities and experiences in the world, the more identity turns into a reflexive but also fragile project. Media constantly show their users that very little can be taken for granted as universal truths or as globally accepted norms—family life, work cultures, and lifestyles vary, and all this diversity is regularly visible to them. Identity of one’s own and of others is constantly under scrutiny, even under threat, especially as media remind their audiences of risks, such as terrorism, close by and at a distance, and of others’ constant presence on screens ( Silverstone 2007 ) and on the street, especially as a result of migration.

Yet, access to information and communication remains uneven—not everyone sees themselves and others in the media to the same extent. Unequal access to media and communications and uneven representations of different groups, especially on the basis of race, gender, sexuality, class, and location, can privilege certain groups against others. Returning to the questions of whether individuals have control over their own identities and if identities represent a global reflexive project, one might need to consider whether media power and control are directly involved in producing identity hierarchies. This question becomes even more important if we approach identities as symbolically constructed. Mead (1934) argued that different symbols allow individuals to imagine how others see them and act selfconsciously in response to that. Such symbols can be a passport or a language that represent nationality, but they can expand across a range of identifiable or subtle representations, such as media representations. Does it matter that ethnic minorities are underrepresented on national television in most countries of the Global North? Does it matter that stereotypical images of femininity are reproduced across different media? And does it matter that Internet access between continents varies enormously with both technological and content control overconcentrated in the Global North? Feminist and postcolonial scholars (see Gill 2007a ; Hegde 2016 ) have emphasized the role of the media in constructing, not just representing, identities; Teresa de Lauretis (1989) powerfully argued that cinema is a technology of gender, that media representations are the constructions of gender, class, race, not just their reflection. While media and communication scholars widely recognize these challenges, their responses vary. Some emphasize the significance of fairer and regulated representations of diversity in mainstream media as a necessity for different groups gaining recognition and respect for their cultural identities and difference ( Downing and Husband 2005 ). Others argue that digital media have changed the game altogether by diversifying identity representations; increasingly media users become producers of their own desired representations of the self and of their communities ( Bruns 2007 ).

Discussions on participatory and reflexive engagement with the media have gone hand in hand with debates on the fragmentation, multiplicity, and hybridity of identities. Digital technologies have boosted mediated mobility between spaces, but migration has enhanced physical mobility and identification with a range of collectivities and communities for much longer. A core element of global change, intensified and diversified migration has presented a range of challenges to the concept of identity, not least as this has historically been associated with the nation and bounded communities. Influentially, Benedict Anderson’s (1991) theorization of imagined communities established the close relation between the nation and the media throughout modernity. Sharing the same news and the same media within the boundaries of the nation has reproduced shared imagination of collective identities among people willing to commit and even die for the nation, he argues. Currently one in thirty-three people is an international migrant ( United Nations Population Fund 2015 ), while more than half of the world’s population lives in cities, largely as a result of mass migration. Do national media still have the power to widely and effectively circulate symbols of a community? Or do current formulations of media and culture destabilize identities that used to be dominant, like national identities, but even social class, gender, and religion?

A range of approaches respond critically to these questions, especially by problematizing the limits, relevance, and biases of the concept of identity. Kevin Robins (2001) talks against identity altogether, arguing that as a concept it has become irrelevant to the experience and imagination of people who live between different physical and mediated environments. Ien Ang (2003) recognizes the value of identity, especially in recognition of its mobilization for political projects of emancipation, as seen in the case of indigenous and ethnic minority movements. At the same time, she highlights the dangerous territory of identity, as it is sometimes mobilized within national and transnational communities to promote hostility to difference and to diversity. In response, she turns to hybridity as a concept helpful to understanding “a world where we no longer have the secure capacity to draw a line between us and them, the different and the same, here and there, and indeed between ‘Asian’ and ‘Western’” ( 2003, 141 ). Hybridity has become an attractive concept, especially in critical approaches to identity, as it opens up a space for understanding and promoting togetherness-in-difference rather than being preoccupied with identity’s separateness ( Ang 2003 ). Is the binary of togetherness/separation the inevitable result of a politics of identity, or is there space for a politics that recognizes both difference and commonality? W. E. B. Du Bois’s concept of “double consciousness” speaks of a “two-ness,” of feeling “an American, a Negro” ( 1903/1986, 364 ), a line of thought followed by Gilroy’s (1997) conceptualization of the “changing same” in regard to diasporic identities’ multiplicity and ambivalent perspectives. Continuity comes with change and identifications with new places and people. Urban music often reflects such hybrid, complex, and ambivalent systems of identification ( Georgiou 2013 ): R&B and hip-hop lyrics and musical themes sometimes capture experiences and histories of migration and diaspora, while at the same time identifying struggles firmly grounded in urban, marginalized locales.

Music, graffiti, advertising, as well as social media currently constitute elements of mediated communication, as much as the press, television, and radio. Thus, information and symbols of identity—from world news to “likes”—are circulated widely through a range of networks including those controlled by media conglomerates, but also by communities, such as music fans, diasporas, and extremist groups. As a result and inevitably, debates on the inclusion and exclusion of different groups from media production and representation have now expanded far beyond mass media. Who speaks and on behalf of whom and with what consequences for identity is a question requiring more complex responses than in the past. Arguably, media power has grown, not least as all different elements of communication—interpersonal, community, professional, local, and transnational—are increasingly mediated. Roger Silverstone (2007) argues that mediation comes with significant changes in social and cultural environments and regulates relations between individuals, groups, and institutions. The diversification but also the ever presence of media in everyday life open up prospects for more democratic and diverse recognition of identities and difference, argue some; yet others emphasize the danger for further regulation and containment of identity—theories of performativity have been influential to both claims.

For Judith Butler (1990) , identity is more about what you do rather than about what you are . Identity is a regulatory fiction, she argues, reinforcing limits and control upon individuals. Following Michel Foucault, Butler argues that gender, like all identities, is the result of repeated performances “that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a natural sort of being” ( 1990, 33 ). Inscriptions of identity are reproduced through the repetition of certain symbols, not least through media representations. If media’s influence in culture and society is growing, as mediation scholars claim, then important questions are raised in regard to the mediated reproduction of identity hierarchies— such as heterosexuality versus homosexuality, whiteness versus blackness, West versus East. Scholars who criticize the growing commercialization of the Internet ( Mejias 2013 ) express concerns about digital media reinforcing the status quo and current political and cultural hierarchies. Yet, others turn to performativity to emphasize the possibility for resistance to such hierarchies in digital media ( Cammaerts 2012 ). If identity is not natural, as claimed by Butler but also by most contemporary identity theorists, there is always a possibility for resistance to its inscribed substance—this is for example seen in the case of transgender identities that destabilize the binary man/woman and reveal that all identities are performed. When it comes to the media in particular, performative complexity becomes most visible in social media: for example, in cross-gender screen identities or, more importantly, in digital projects of self-making that challenge limits of identity. Onscreen performances and confessional narratives that appear on YouTube and blogs are powerful reflections of experimental articulations of the self and provide evidence of the continuous appeal of communities, though and importantly, not only of communities of origin but also of choice. Digital environments can be seen as providing the evidence of shifting spaces of identity. Yet they can be more than that: they can both reflect and construct identity in its performative and imagined dimensions. Most importantly, digital media, like all media, reveal the relevance of identity as a concept used to understand but also to express claims to recognition, as a category of emotional but also political significance that captures and reveals the always incomplete struggles of individuals and groups for a place in the world.

Language and Identity Essay

Introduction.

• Language and Gender
• Language and Racial Identity
• Language and Social Status

Works Cited

Language serves as a vital means of expression, facilitating communication and interaction. It’s not merely a tool for conveying thoughts but is intrinsically linked with an individual’s identity. The question arises: How is language profoundly intertwined with identity?

Individuals, each with their unique characteristics, employ language to express their distinctions or commonalities. In particular, language can be a unifying force for people belonging to a specific social group, highlighting the bond between language and identity from the beginning.

An individual’s identity is not fixed; it varies depending on the situation, purpose, and context. When people find themselves in new environments, they often reshape their identities to adapt. This adaptability underscores the need to explore how environmental changes can redefine the link between language and identity.

Language can also indicate a person’s social status, race, nationality, or gender. Typically, members of a specific group share a common language, reinforcing their unity. This shared linguistic experience solidifies group identity and fosters a sense of belonging through shared experiences and ease of communication.

In this language and identity essay, we explore the dynamic interplay between these two concepts, exploring how they mutually influence and define each other.

Language and Identity: Gender

The intersection of language and gender identity reveals distinct patterns. Across various cultures, gender-based variations in speech are prevalent. Historically, linguistic differences have been observed in how women and men communicate. These differences often stem from the divergent social statuses of men and women, significantly influencing their manner of speaking. Power dynamics and societal roles of subordination between genders typically manifest in their vocabulary choices.

In many societies, there is an expectation for women to use more refined and polite language compared to men. Such cultural norms frequently discourage women from using profanity or obscene language. In these contexts, women often occupy a subordinate position, with their social liberties being more restricted than men’s. This disparity can increase insecurity, uncertainty, and a lack of confidence among women (Talbot 35). Consequently, the use of language within a society can indicate the level of social freedom and gender equality. The linguistic choices of men and women are integral to the discourse on language and identity. Those are not merely reflections of individual preferences but norms deeply embedded in societal structures and expectations. Gendered language norms, as explored in educational settings, not only shape communication styles but also reinforce gender stereotypes and roles, perpetuating inequality. Thus, studying language about gender identity, a key component in teacher education programs, provides critical insights into the broader societal dynamics and power relations that govern gender interactions.

Language and Identity: Race

The intricate relationship between language and racial or ethnic identity is undeniable. An individual’s history shapes their language, leading to those with similar racial backgrounds often using similar languages for communication. One’s mother tongue, acquired at birth, is a fundamental aspect of racial identity, providing a crucial sense of belonging, especially in early life.

In many households, a specific language is used for family communication. This habitual use of a language fosters an association with affection and intimacy, setting it apart from the language used in public settings. For example, Hispanic families living in America often identify Spanish as a critical component of their racial identity.

Consequently, while they might use English in public spaces, they prefer Spanish for intimate conversations with friends and family. Spanish allows for expressing emotions and thoughts in ways that might be more challenging in English (Talbot 173). Speaking a particular language can create a bond among its speakers, delineating an ‘us versus them’ dynamic with those who do not say it.

However, this practice can also lead to social isolation for minorities who speak a different language than the majority. They may struggle to relate to those who do not speak their native language or express themselves in the dominant public language. Even in monolingual societies, people often resort to a distinct language or dialect within their close social circles, aiding in more apparent emotional expression.

The narrative “Aria” by Richard Rodriguez illustrates the role of language as a marker of racial identity. Rodriguez recounts how Spanish, the sole language spoken at home, influenced his upbringing in California, where English was the norm. This use of Spanish fostered a warm, familial environment.

This language choice created a comfortable and inviting atmosphere at home, but it also labeled English speakers as “flos gringos” – the others (Rodriguez 134). While Spanish strengthened familial bonds and provided a sense of identity, it simultaneously isolated the family socially, limiting their interactions to Spanish-speaking relatives.

The exclusive use of Spanish at home adversely affected Rodriguez and his siblings’ educational progress. A shift occurred when nuns from their school intervened, prompting the family to start using English at home. This change markedly improved their social interactions. However, over time, Rodriguez lost proficiency in Spanish, leading his relatives to call him “pocho derogatorily” – a term for someone who has lost their identity (Rodriguez 137). To his relatives, speaking Spanish was a crucial element of their identity. “Aria” underscores the significance of language in racial identity. Despite assimilating into American society, Rodriguez experienced a nostalgic connection to his heritage whenever he heard Spanish spoken, indicating its enduring link to his racial identity.

Language and Identity: Social Status

The social status of individuals often manifests in their speech patterns. Educational attainment significantly influences language proficiency, as those from higher social classes typically access better education. This access equips them with the skills to use language effectively in communication.

People from various social backgrounds tend to exhibit distinct dialects. These dialectic variations reflect their diverse social experiences. Grammatical differences are not the only distinguishing factors; phonological and phonetic variations are also prevalent, leading to distinct accents among different social statuses. Therefore, the linguistic divide between social classes acts as both a consequence and a reinforcer of social stratification, mirroring the complexities of societal hierarchies. This phenomenon underscores the intricate relationship between language use and social identity, where speech patterns become markers of social positioning and mobility.

During the nineteenth century, slavery was a prevalent institution in America. Slaves were relegated to the lowest social echelon. Slave owners were intent on preserving this hierarchy, deeming it improper for slaves to acquire literacy skills. The ability to read and write was seen as a potential elevation of the slaves’ intellectual status, which could threaten the established order. Thus, the enforced illiteracy of slaves perpetuated their subjugation and created a linguistic divide between them and their masters (Jones and Christensen 45). In modern times, every society exhibits some form of social stratification. This concept refers to the structured ranking of social classes within a societal hierarchy. Their relative social distances influence the linguistic impact between social groups. Language changes in a higher social class might have little to no effect on the language used by lower social classes. Conversely, social groups closely aligned in status may share similar linguistic traits.

Language is integral in facilitating effective communication between two parties. However, its efficiency largely depends on both parties’ language understanding. As such, language can be a tool for enhancing or impeding communication. Individuals need to understand the nuances of words within the specific language used.

Misinterpretation of language can lead to incorrect perceptions of the message being conveyed. This issue often arises because some words may have varied meanings depending on the context. Therefore, the speaker must assess the listener’s ability to comprehend the information, which should be a central consideration in the communication process (Tan 142). This ensures that the intended message is accurately understood.

Language has two main functions. It helps communicate and gives a group of people a sense of identity and pride. People usually identify themselves with a specific language. Various groups use jargon that is only comprehensible to people within the group.

Language may show the social status, gender, and race of an individual. People who belong to different social statuses usually use other languages. In addition, different genders use different language vocabularies. A study on the language vocabulary of different genders may help determine a society’s social freedom. Language is a source of racial identity. People usually use a specific language when communicating with people from their race. The use of this language creates racial identity.

Jones, Malinda E., and Ann E. Christensen. “Learning to Read.” Constructing Strong Foundations of Early Literacy . Routledge, 2022. 33-46.

Talbot, Mary, ed. Language and Power in The Modern World . Edinburgh University Press, 2019.

Rodriguez, Richard. “Aria.” The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas . Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Ontario: Pearson Education Canada, 2007, pp. 133-139.

Tan, Amy “Mother Tongue.” The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas . Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Ontario: Pearson Education Canada, 2007, pp. 140-144.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, March 1). Language and Identity Essay. https://ivypanda.com/essays/relationship-between-language-and-identity/

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1. IvyPanda . "Language and Identity Essay." March 1, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/relationship-between-language-and-identity/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Language and Identity Essay." March 1, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/relationship-between-language-and-identity/.

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• Comparison of the Educational Articles by R. Rodriguez and M. Pratt
• Opinion About the Course and the Author Richard Rodriguez
• Embarking on Research by Rau, Gao and Wu (2006) and by Rodriguez, Ooms and Montanez (2008)
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• Sarah Baartman Discussion
• Sarah Baartman: A Victim of Discrimination
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• Race, Inclusion, Exclusion, and Segregation

Research: What Is American Identity and Why Does It Matter?

Why Does the American Identity Matter?

The most important reason for understanding American identity is related to white racial identification. It may not be prevalent in U.S. political attitudes, but it’s still an issue. A survey from 2012 asked white respondents to indicate if whiteness represented the way they thought of themselves most of the time, as opposed to identifying themselves as Americans . One fifth of the survey’s white respondents said that they preferred the term white to American when identifying themselves.

How to Analyze American Identity

• There’s no such thing as a universal identity, especially for an omni-cultural country such as the USA.
• Everyone has their own understanding of what it means to be American today, as citizens come from different religious, ethnic, ideological, and geographical backgrounds.
• Explaining the concept of American identity calls for an inclusive approach based on solidarity.
• Depending on how you discuss the concept, an academic essay may require arguments on modern-day immigration and immigrant policies. How do they fit within the common understanding of American identity?

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Essay on Identity

Identity is a state of mind in which someone recognizes/identifies their character traits that leads to finding out who they are and what they do and not that of someone else. In other words it's basically who you are and what you define yourself as being. The theme of identity is often expressed in books/novels or basically any other piece of literature so that the reader can intrigue themselves and relate to the characters and their emotions. It's useful in helping readers understand that a person's state of mind is full of arduous thoughts about who they are and what they want to be. People can try to modify their identity as much as they want but that can never change. The theme of identity is a very strenuous topic to understand …show more content…

As they tried to get adjusted in New York City it was very hard for them to do since their families wanted them to maintain their cultural roots but yet the girls wanted to be like everyone else was so that they could feel comfortable. Trying to adjust to their new way of life is very difficult especially in a city like New York where if you're not high-class you struggle along in often dangerous community which is something their mother doesn't want them to become exposed to. As they search for their cultural identity this also interferes with their personal identity. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents is story that is mostly told through Yolanda's point of view since she was the one that in the family that most struggle with her own identity. She was born in the Dominican Republic but when she came to New York City everything changed. As she tried to accommodate herself she lost many of her old ways yet gained knowledge of the American ways. In Chapter 1 Yolanda returns to Dominican Republic after five years but she had changed a lot. It was hard for her to speak Spanish the way she used to before and also difficult to remember any cultural words. Her aunts explained to her that an "antojo" is a craving you have for something. At the thought of this she decided to go into the countryside and search for some "guavas". As Yolanda was in search for such fruits, two men with weapons asked her if Spanish if she needed help. "She has been too

Identity Essay

Most people, unless they choose to be an outsider, want to be considered “cool.” Whether it’s to fit in with a peer group, or clique, or to impress someone in particular, like a member of the opposite sex, or a potential mate. Or possibly to gain something from an individual for financial or social gain (see “Scamming”).

Identity is what defines us as a person. Everyone one on earth has their own unique identity. To showcase my identity, I created a collage of images and descriptive words, called an identi-kit. This identi-kit shows what I feel like is my identity to myself and the others. My identi-kit identifies me as a mixed martial artist. The identi-kit has images of a deadly shark with mixed martial arts gloves on that say mixed martial arts on the front and fight shorts with the words competitor and warrior on them. It also has descriptive words like “killer instinct” and “fight” which describe my spirit. There are three assumptions that come to question when asking about one’s identity. The first is if you were born with this

Shaping Identity Essay

Identity. What is identity? One will say that it is the distinct personality of an individual. Others will say that identity is the behavior of a person in response to their surrounding environment. At certain points of time, some people search for their identity in order to understand their existence in life. In regards, identity is shaped into an individual through the social trials of life that involve family and peers, the religious beliefs by the practice of certain faiths, and cultural awareness through family history and traditions. These are what shape the identity of an individual.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Identity Analysis

What is identity? A normal person would think that it’s simply defined as who we are. However, there are many definitions of identity, as it can mean differently for others. Identity is what makes us unique from one another because there is no one else like us. Since our surroundings, such as the people we meet and places we go to, possess a role into shaping who we are, we are constantly changing. As we grow up and become curious, we experiences many things and start to see different sides of ourselves. We start to question our individuality, to the point where we may struggle with whom we really are. Similar to Janie Crawford in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie struggles with identity. Throughout

thematic essay on identity

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     There are many aspects of identity in the poem “Sex without Love,” by Sharon Olds. I can relate my own thoughts to how the author views the subject that she talks about in this poem. There has been a situation in my own life where I was thinking to myself, just as the author was, “How do they do it, the ones who make love without love?” (Olds 740). Having been raised as a well-rounded and disciplined person, as well as religious, I know the discouragement of having premarital sex. It’s not just the immorality that these characters are experiencing that the author is talking about, but they probably have personal issues that have to do with a their self worth and identity. These

College Essay On Identity

My identity is something that that no one can take away from me. As I am still growing and learning, I can say that I have found many things that appeal to me. My interests will help define my personality and express myself in ways that I can’t express through words. I enjoy finding new things to do and doing my best in aiming towards my goals. I have many goals, but I know that I can only accomplish them through patience and perseverance.

Synthesis Essay On Identity

Who I am? Personally, I believe that a person’s identity can take only one of two routes. One, a person’s identity can change within that person’s life. Who I am now, is not necessarily who I was when I was younger. Experience can and will likely modify our identities. Therefore, experience can solidify our personal identification or it can weaken our personal identification. And as such, individuals and their perspectives are always evolving, or at the very least, they should evolve over time. Although there are some identities that evolve throughout one’s lifetime; there are some identities that remain consistent. Two, some identities cannot and will not change. So identities are socially and/or politically forces upon you, some identities are genetically assigned to you, and some you choose to keep. No matter the reason or reasons, these identities have been and will be consist within your lifespan. But, how you deal with them is up to you as an individual.

Defining Identity Essays

There are millions of words across the globe that are used to describe people and uncover their identity, but what is identity? How can you begin to describe something that varies so greatly from one human being to another? Can you create a universal meaning for a word describing human concepts that people often fail to define for themselves? Of course there isn't one definition to define such a word. It is an intricate aspect of human nature, and it has a definition just as complex.

The Namesake Theme Of Identity Essay

An identity is the state of being oneself. Your character is comprised of your past, present, and future. Some individuals are ashamed of who they really are and try to change themselves, or mask their identities. One of the dominant themes that is conveyed throughout The Namesake is the theme of identity. In the novels, everybody is a little lost, or a lot lost, frankly. Practically every individual struggles with his or her identity, because every person feels the tug and pull of different cultures, different traditions, and different dreams. The Namesake is about this perpetual dilemma faced by immigrants as they fight to maintain their identities while trying to shake them off at the same time while The Great Gatsby is about people

Identity and Belonging Essay

Our perception of our identity is constantly changing, the groups we belong to, the people we talk to and the way we connect with others help to form our identity. There is one thing we all have in common despite our individual identities, is the need to belong. There’s no obligation to belong to only one group, you can belong to many. An individual can belong to many groups, which will then create multiple identities; hence our understanding of identity is never constant. Belonging to a loving family, group of caring friends that help us to develop our own sense of self. However, belonging can have a negative side. For example our families might have an expectation of us to do something that might alter our ambitions and interfere with

The Role Of Identity In The Sorrowful Woman

What is an identity? Some people claim you’re born with it, other says that your identity is molded throughout your lifetime. An identity is what makes you the person that you are. When someone describes you to someone else, they are describing your identity. The morals that you live by, and the way you live your life is your identity. Many different factors make your identity different from everyone else’s. I think this because everyone goes through different events in their life and that’s what alters a person’s identity.

Essay on The Identity Theory

beliefs. Sober uses the example of lightning. He points out that according to the Greeks,

Personal Identity Essay

To be an American is to have traits of freedom the thing that the founding fathers counted on is to have the will to speak freely and to have the will of religion in the constitution it say that every citizen should have life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This impacts and brings everyone from different places to help create a society that is free. The founding fathers also counted for the people to speak for what is right. The reason is because this helps out on what the people want instead of the government wants this goes to show that the people matter and that is what makes a person happy and also makes a person feel like they have the pursuit to be happy.

Self Identity Essay

There are numerous factors that either make up or restrain the self-identity of a person or an individual. Culture, in addition to family traditions, is one of the factors that affect the self-identity of an individual. When growing up, the environment around affect the personality, values, as well as, beliefs of an individual. The environment includes friends, family members, and the people that affect the life of an individual. So, if the environment is negative, then an individual will have low self esteem.

Finding Personal Identity in Literature Essay

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Identity is what evolves us, it is what makes us think the way we do, and act the way we act, in essence, a person’s identity is their everything. Identity separates us from everyone else, and while one may be very similar to another, there is no one who is exactly like you; someone who has experienced exactly what you have, feels the way you do about subjects, and reacts the same to the events and experiences you have had. This became prevalent to me as I read through many books, that everyone goes through the process of finding who they are. A prevalent theme throughout literature is the idea that over time one develops their identity through life over time, in contrast to being born with one identity and having the same

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A New African American Identity: The Harlem Renaissance

With the end of the Civil War in 1865, hundreds of thousands of African Americans newly freed from the yoke of slavery in the South began to dream of fuller participation in American society, including political empowerment, equal economic opportunity, and economic and cultural self-determination.

Unfortunately, by the late 1870s, that dream was largely dead, as white supremacy was quickly restored to the Reconstruction South. White lawmakers on state and local levels passed strict racial segregation laws known as “Jim Crow laws” that made African Americans second-class citizens. While a small number of African Americans were able to become landowners, most were exploited as sharecroppers, a system designed to keep them poor and powerless. Hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) perpetrated lynchings and conducted campaigns of terror and intimidation to keep African Americans from voting or exercising other fundamental rights.

With booming economies across the North and Midwest offering industrial jobs for workers of every race, many African Americans realized their hopes for a better standard of living—and a more racially tolerant environment—lay outside the South. By the turn of the 20th century, the Great Migration was underway as hundreds of thousands of African Americans relocated to cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York. The Harlem section of Manhattan, which covers just three square miles, drew nearly 175,000 African Americans, giving the neighborhood the largest concentration of black people in the world. Harlem became a destination for African Americans of all backgrounds. From unskilled laborers to an educated middle-class, they shared common experiences of slavery, emancipation, and racial oppression, as well as a determination to forge a new identity as free people.

The Great Migration drew to Harlem some of the greatest minds and brightest talents of the day, an astonishing array of African American artists and scholars. Between the end of World War I and the mid-1930s, they produced one of the most significant eras of cultural expression in the nation’s history—the Harlem Renaissance. Yet this cultural explosion also occurred in Cleveland, Los Angeles and many cities shaped by the great migration. Alain Locke, a Harvard-educated writer, critic, and teacher who became known as the “dean” of the Harlem Renaissance, described it as a “spiritual coming of age” in which African Americans transformed “social disillusionment to race pride.”

The Harlem Renaissance encompassed poetry and prose, painting and sculpture, jazz and swing, opera and dance. What united these diverse art forms was their realistic presentation of what it meant to be black in America, what writer Langston Hughes called an “expression of our individual dark-skinned selves,” as well as a new militancy in asserting their civil and political rights.

Among the Renaissance’s most significant contributors were intellectuals W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Cyril Briggs, and Walter Francis White; electrifying performers Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson; writers and poets Zora Neale Hurston, Effie Lee Newsome, Countee Cullen; visual artists Aaron Douglas and Augusta Savage; and an extraordinary list of legendary musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Eubie Blake, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Ivie Anderson, Josephine Baker, Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, and countless others.

Josaphine Baker

At the height of the movement, Harlem was the epicenter of American culture. The neighborhood bustled with African American-owned and run publishing houses and newspapers, music companies, playhouses, nightclubs, and cabarets. The literature, music, and fashion they created defined culture and “cool” for blacks and white alike, in America and around the world.

As the 1920s came to a close, so did the Harlem Renaissance. Its heyday was cut short largely due to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and resulting Great Depression, which hurt African American-owned businesses and publications and made less financial support for the arts available from patrons, foundations, and theatrical organizations.

However, the Harlem Renaissance’s impact on America was indelible. The movement brought notice to the great works of African American art, and inspired and influenced future generations of African American artists and intellectuals. The self-portrait of African American life, identity, and culture that emerged from Harlem was transmitted to the world at large, challenging the racist and disparaging stereotypes of the Jim Crow South. In doing so, it radically redefined how people of other races viewed African Americans and understood the African American experience.

Most importantly, the Harlem Renaissance instilled in African Americans across the country a new spirit of self-determination and pride, a new social consciousness, and a new commitment to political activism, all of which would provide a foundation for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In doing so, it validated the beliefs of its founders and leaders like Alain Locke and Langston Hughes that art could be a vehicle to improve the lives of the African Americans. 

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Examples Of Janie's Identity

Janie Discovers Her Identity The development of identity is not just about physical attributes of a person but also mentally and how one expresses themselves in society. Throughout the book, Janie is looking for true love and finding freedom to help her discover her true identity as a woman. At the beginning of the book, Janie is a very shy person and does not express herself very much and often relies on others. But towards the end of the book, Janie has grown up and has found her own identity and her own independence to be able to live on her own. Many people help her discover her identity throughout the story.The most significant people in Janie's life who contribute the most are Joe, Tea Cake, and Logan. They all helped contribute to the …show more content…

Joe has impacted the growth and development of Janie’s identity by helping her realize that a lot of men use women for their looks and appearance rather than their personality or their love. Janie realizes Joe was one of these men when she finally retaliates towards Joe about bragging to his friends about her looks and not her personality. “Stop mixin’ up mah doings wid mah looks,Jody” (Hurston 50). This quote shows that Janie realizes that her own husband only sees her for her looks and not for her love towards him or her personality and her looks determine her intelligence. During this scene, Janie finally stood up to Joe for herself and about how he only married her for her looks. Another example of how Joe impacted Janie’s identity development was when Joe forced Janie to keep her hair up in the store. But when he did, Janie learned of her independence and her personal power. After Joe dies, Janie took control and let her hair down in public again. “Before she slept that night she burnt up every one of her head rags and went about the house next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging well below her waist.” (Hurston …show more content…

Tea Cake helped Janie learn how to play checkers and she was very good at it. “Everyone was surprised at Janie playing checkers, but they liked it. Three or four stood behind her and coached her moves and generally made merry with her in a restrained way” (Hurston 95). This quote explains the discovery of Janie's self worth and identity because she learns stuff about herself that no one ever helped her realize, such as how intelligent and talented she is. Also how she is a very quick learner and can pick up new things very quickly. But teaching her new things quickly backfires on him later in the novel because she later shoots him with a gun he taught her to use and ends up killing Tea Cake. “Oh, you need to learn now. ‘Tain’t no need uh you not knowin’ how tuh handle shootin’ tools” (Hurston 130). This quote shows the moment when Tea Cake realized he needed to teach Janie to use guns. This helped her develop more motor skills that no one ever taught her growing up. But by the end of the novel, Janie ends up shooting Tea Cake when he has rabies to protect herself from

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