Essay 1 revision

Olivia Nyhammer

Professor Young

September 20, 2014

English 110

Essay #1

Identity Speaks

Picture this:You wake up in a hospital bed with no one around. You dont know where you are or why you're in a hospital. The doctor comes in, explains you hit your head and are suffering from memory loss. He asks what your name is because you are in another country so they don't have your information on file. You have no idea what to do or say because you can't remember your name, where your home is, or anything for that matter. What do you do? When you ask yourself who you are you have nothing to identify with, no way to explain yourself. Your identity is like your own personal logo composed of all the things that makes you, you. Being able to identify yourself through your roles, religion, and community is very important. It’s importance can be seen as an example in James McBride’s memoir, The Color of Water, as James struggles to find his place as a mixed boy with a white mother in a segregated society.

Furthermore, most people identify themselves through their roles within society. Roles are a huge part of everyday life, hence why we tend to identify through them sometimes without even realizing. Fulfilling the duties associated with one's role gives a sense of purpose which is very crucial to happiness encouraging one to identify through them. For instance, parents generally feel like their life is centered around their children and identify themselves as a “Mom” or “Dad” because it is a very important role they take on daily. During the times of segregation blacks and whites had definitive roles in society. The expected and the norm back then was that the whites were basically obligated to have the best of everything and often identified the blacks with poverty and ignorance. McBride explains what it was like when his mom took him and his siblings on the subway, “...sometimes laughing at us, pointing, muttering things like, “Look at those little niggers.” (McBride 31) It is unfortunate America had these segregations at one time but it is a clear reflection of role status.  This emphasizes how critical one’s role in society can play in shaping their identity and why it is so important to society and oneself.

In addition to roles, people often choose to identify themselves through religion. There are so many different types of religion and despite the fact that ultimately we should respect each other’s love for

a higher being, we are sometimes labeled and discriminated because of them. Religions that require you to dress and behave a certain way are at a higher risk of being targeted. As James grows up throughout the novel, he begins to see how his mother's faith in God allowed her to see equality amongst both races while their society made them so separated and concludes, “As a grown man, I understand now, understand how her Christian principles and trust in God kept her going through all her life’s battles, but as a boy, my faith was not that strong.” (McBride 33) Having both parents build up the New Brown Memorial Baptist Church, it is clear that she not only is strongly identified through religion, but it has solemnly got her through one of the toughest times in US history. Religion is a very important part in forming one’s physical and emotional characteristics making up their identity.

Furthermore, it is natural for one’s community to influence the formation of their identity in a powerful way. We tend to pick up on things we see and hear from the people around us, specifically in our communities. Slang and accents are a great example of ways we identify with one another. People also commonly identify themselves with the groups within their community. For instance, McBride explains, “...she herself occasionally talked about “the white man” in the third person, as if she had nothing to do with him, and in fact she didn't, since most of her friends and social circle were black women from church.” (McBride 32) In the community James lives in white’s were seen as stuck up and although his mother was white herself, she chose not to identify herself with purely

based on the way they acted. It is so easy for one to identify themselves with their community and the groups within it that it happens subconsciously. It is very important that one has an identity and your community is the first thing that begins shaping  it.

Without an identity we are unexplainable. Roles play an important part in shaping our identity by giving us purpose. Religion also provides definition to our identity physically and emotionally because most utilize their spiritual values in every decision they make. Lastly, one’s community can make a lasting impression on their identity by the groups they associate themselves with and all around getting exposed to different ways of life. All of these examples of what forms our identity and why it is important can be seen in James McBride’s memoir, The Color of Water. Identity is essential to our happiness and society.

Works Cited

McBride, James. The Color of Water. New York: Penguin Group, 2006. Print.