When Sarah, young girl of 15, looks into the mirror doesn’t see what everyone else sees; as a result, she sees all the flaws while others see her best features. Everyone she meets see all her smiles and the beauty behind the eyes; instead When she leaves the presence of these people, Sarah , discouraged and depressed, beats herself up for messing these conversations up, for not being good enough, for not being who these people believe that she is. In the mirror Sarah sees as pain sickened girl who has seen too much, a girl too small to be considered anorexic, whose face is blemished and disturbed from too much dirt and neglect. In general, Sarah is not what she seems. So, are you really who you think you are? You might think you are person inside but in reality we are the exact opposite. Where does our sense of identity come from? Though it is correct that our environment affects our lifestyle, I would like to say that our identity is from within. It is the core of our soul and without it we are…empty. In the beginning the desire to know motivates people, any and everywhere, to go through conquests to scope out who they are. Though it’s thought to be that we have to find out who we are, I contradict this statement by saying that we are born ourselves. People believe that we must be shaped or trained as if we were dogs. Many people search for identity; however it’s already there. Thandie Newton, actor and dancer, was such that person who went looking for her identity but soon realized that she had herself all along. “…And my panic at not having a self that fit, and the confusion that came from myself being rejected, created anxiety, shame and hopelessness, which kind of defined me for a long time.” We just have to realize that each person is born with individuality about us. And when we realize and really understand that ourselves are a projection and that it has a function we stop giving it so much authority; eventually we give it its due. When we look for us we look for closure. When you become one with yourself you find that you have been you all along. In addition to actually being yourself, people aren’t at what they are a who. I believe that to call someone a nothing you’re actually calling them a something because when nothing is wrong there is always something. Identity is who you are not what you are. A number of people believe that the person you see is the true identity you are. When Sarah looks in the mirror the person she sees is not the person she is. All of the changing skin tones, the wild clothes, the bright shoes, the messy hair, and the exotic make-up is not who you are because when it all comes off what is left... nothing. So the you that you look for is within. In “Race Politics” two brothers –Hispanic brothers- crossed an invisible border into an all-white community. On their side of the line they were powerful but once they crossed over they became powerless, nothing, nada because of their skin and their ethnicity. They were beaten because they of the difference in their race. They were young Hispanic boys, 9 and 6, in an all grown up world of pure breed Americans that happen to be white. They were different, they oranges of the apples. In “The Road Not Taken” the narrator comes upon a split in the road. He doesn’t know which one to take. In terms of identity this could mean that he could be who he really is or what everyone else wants him to be. Really the eyes are the windows to the soul. Just as the paths in the poem “both wanted wear”
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