Identity: A Reflection of Oneself

Identity; in many ways, identity is the most difficult truths about our individuals selves to understand. With so many influences- society, culture, and those around us-it can be challenging to understand your own identity. Although there are several ways interpret what exactly an “identity” is, the general consensus is that identity is who a person is at a deeper level: a combination of who one interprets themselves to be and how he/she presents themselves to those around them. This identity, to truly know and understand who you are, is not found or learned easily. If it were, it’s unlikely everything from classic American novels to Disney movies would feature characters grappling with finding their own identity.

Perhaps no classic American novel does a better job at illustrating the struggle to find one’s true self than Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. To understand why Ellison’s bildungsroman is such a great example of a character grappling with the search for their identity we must first ask ourselves a question:

What elements help create a person's identity?

As I said earlier, identity is influenced by many things, particularly society, culture, and those around us. Throughout  Invisible Man society, those around the protagonist clearly shape who he is. With each new person that comes into his life-from Bledsoe to the members of the Brotherhood-the protagonist tries to find a place for himself that alongside them. With Bledsoe, the protagonist desperately works to impress him. In many ways, Bledsoe is a symbol of success to the protagonist and much of his early identity was shaped around wanting to become a man as great as Bledsoe. Like Bledsoe, he “hated [those living in the former slave quarters], [he] believed in the principles of the [college] with all [his] heart and soul.” (99). Bledsoe looked negatively on less educated black people. Unlike him, they were not able to integrate themselves so well into white society and were thus not as great as him. This negativity towards other, less conforming black people and the involvement with oneself influenced the protagonist’s own identity and led him to become a reflection a man whose life and status he believed to be an ideal.

The Brotherhood, who the protagonist was around for a large period of time, quite literally gave him a new identity by renaming him. Although the new name they gift him with was never revealed, the protagonist does explain in multiple ways that joining the Brotherhood was a new birth for him. The Brotherhood welcomed him in and along with the name change they also gave him a job, new responsibilities, and an audience to listen to him. “It was a newness too subtle to put into thought, but there it was. [He] was becoming someone else. (335)” He felt a new self with the Brotherhood, “a new beginning” (335), and his identity changed because of it. He presented and often felt like a leader and bastion of personal responsibility. For him, the Brotherhood was another birth-another chance to become what he was meant to be. Those around him, the other members of the Brotherhood, helped him become a great orator and motivator. When the protagonist was working for the Brotherhood, he was who he was because of the environment they created and fostered around him. 

After taking a closer look at Invisible Man, it becomes pretty clear that who we are as individuals is often shaped by the people we come into contact with. In many ways, we are just a collection of traits from those around us-a cornucopia of those who we have been the closest to. And with this having been said, who are you?

Not all books are created equal. Some written works are deemed to possess “literary merit” but many people are unsure what this means exactly. Even CollegeBoard offers a relatively vague idea of what literary merit truly is. Literary merit is pretty difficult to put into exact words- it’s debatable and highly subjective. However, I feel literary merit is ascribed to books that have a deeper meaning, through themes, open questions and symbolism, that can provoke thought in their readers.

Although some books will leave a reader with little more than the memory of what was previously read, a work of literary merit will stay in the reader’s thoughts. Whether the reader enjoyed the novel is irrelevant in this aspect; like the saying “All press is good press,” nearly all reactions to a work of fiction are good reactions. Maybe the reader is contemplating the morality of the protagonist’s actions or perhaps they just cannot stand a choice that a character made. Either way, this novel has stuck with them in a lasting way. Something about the book the reader has finished has caused them to have deeper thoughts about one topic or another. Themes, open questions you ask yourself as you read, and symbolism the author uses allow a novel to become much more than just words. These elements make you and others readers think harder about a text and often help in establishing a more personal connection between the text and you as a reader.  In my opinion, this shows that the book really has literary merit because its meaning goes beyond what’s simply written on the page.

With this in mind, I feel like Cry the Beloved Country is definitely a work of great literary merit. There are not one but many themes that can be derived from the text-each one giving the novel another layer of meaning. The characters are constantly faced with situations that test their strength and faith in God and life, among other things. Country’s themes, along with symbolism (often in relation to crying), were things I thought about nearly every time I read from its pages. When a book is as steeped in meaning as well as historical context as Paton’s novel is, it is hard to simply read through quickly with no second thought. In fact, it basically requires you to think deeper about what each sentence and paragraph means in the grand scheme of the novel and for that alone I feel this book is clearly one of literary merit.

The jury may still be out on what the true definition of ‘literary merit’ is and perhaps they always will be but to me, I feel that literary merit simply warrants that a book come with far deeper meaning than what may appear upon first glance. 

Starting Over

                I have never been that great at introducing myself, an instance where I actually began with “Hi, you don’t know me,” comes to mind, but I suppose this is a good place at which to begin. Anyways, reading has always been an activity I have enjoyed. However, it would be a far stretch to say I still read as often as I would like to. In fact, I can barely remember the last time I even thought about reading on my own.  So it is with this I come to the goals of this blog-read more frequently and more actively as I did when I was younger as well as regain some of the reading skills that have weakened as I lost time to churn through books.

                Growing up, I would read entire books in one or two days. While they were not books of great literary merit (the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series more than anything honestly), I still read nearly every day. I had a lot of issues speaking when I was younger and reading let me feel more confident with myself. In my head, I could ‘say’ words without mispronouncing them or slurring them together. Apart from this, reading was simply fun. Reading books, I was able to entertain myself by becoming immersed in the adventures and activities the characters in my books would set out on. Books really do open a whole new world for their readers. Perhaps my fondness for reading is why I was never bothered too much by having to read books in school. Although often tedious, reading in school taught me many valuable skills for retaining information and making important connections.  

                Active reading, active reading, and more active reading. Nearly every student has this concept drilled into them on a near daily basis from sixth grade onwards.  While time consuming, actively reading has helped me remember information about books I read over two years ago. Actively reading is also a great way to find themes and other deeper messages with relative ease. However, the active reading I have done for some time has been slightly different; I have been actively reading nonfiction texts. While the major ideas are the same, connections and deeper meanings that become apparent in literature are different than those seen in nonfiction. Nonfiction is typically straightforward while literature can twist and turns in a number of ways. Even when literature is linear, symbols arise around every corner. By reading more, I hope to regain my ability to fully comprehend a novel.

                I know I will not reach these goals overnight and that it will not necessarily be easy to accomplish. Even so, it will be an exciting journey. Maybe along the way, I will learn to love reading once again. I will begin this adventure with Alan Paton’s’ Cry, the Beloved Country. I am unsure if I will even enjoy this novel, but there is only one way to find out.