Zhenyu Bian(Jack)
English 101
9/11/13
Identity
In my previous opinion, identity is social status, but after reading two articles, I know that identity includes many factors. Anyway identity is an important symbol of a person, and it has a great effect on his/her life. Many identities are gift, such as gender, race or even social class; some identities we can achieve through our endeavor including educational level, social status. At the same time, many factors influence our identity. First one is gender; as a child, boys and girls may be educated or cultivated in some different ways; even some jobs are only provided for male. Second one is race. I think it is a big issue—the black, the white, and human being have struggled for it for a long time. Third one is social class. Someone was born in top class; someone was born in medium class, and someone was born in low class. We can’t decide it, and social class can decide which school you can go to. That is unequal I think.
However, we can change our identity that depends on our endeavor. We go to school to receive education; we learn knowledge; we master different skills. So one day we can be a lawyer, a professor or an engineer; for example, Barack Obama is a black person, but now he is the president of America; he has changed his identity through his endeavor. So our identity is not unchanging. Some identities are outward, such as gender, race; social status is inside I think. We can have different identity in