Struggling with identity (or forming identity and what that means) in the stories - Essay Example

In these works characters are in the quest for their identity. In Tillie Olsen’s ‘I stand Here Ironing’ we find that Emily is seeking her own identity. Her mother, her family members, her teachers and schoolmates, all are in search of identity. We find Emily’s mother’s feelings of sadness and lack and her inability to connect with her daughter Emily. Emily had an inner sadness in properly understanding her own position in the social fabric that existed during that period. A diametrically opposed pattern is evident here.

Emily’s mother feels that she must have acted in a different way to influence the behaviors of Emily. Emily, on the other hand, feels that her out of home behaviors were wrong. She thinks that she must have been more positive. She had a strange mix of childhood and motherhood. The very first sentence reveals the mood of the complete story. Emily’s mother explains with a mood of despair her daughter’s hard attempts to locate her own identity being in a self-limiting environment. The story raises several questions individual identity.

In the story, both mother and daughter are searching for their identity though they face numerous limitations brought by social constraints and their history of poverty. The constraints that surround them make them search for their identity. Sherman Alexie’s ‘The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven’ is yet another works that involves characters who are in search of their identity. Racial and ethnic identity does matter in the lives of individuals. Racial identity and cultural identity symbolize the cultural existence of an individual.

Racial identity and cultural identity often shapes the lives of individuals. The story presents several cultural barriers and difficulties where individuals are in search of their identities. The story describes the life of an young native American man whose life is focused in his ethnic identity. Being an Indian he was brought up on a reservation. He however was constantly on travel. He lived in Seattle. His constant shifting between two cultures and two environments created a big question about his identity.

In Tim O'Brien’s ‘The Things They Carried’ also we find a striving for identity. The dual personae that are found in the story often gets intertwined and even become indistinguishable. The narrator himself says that the identity that lives inside is what really matters (Napersteck, 1991). The real identity of the narrator is not always visible in the story. Locating the identity of the narrator is a big threat to the readers also. The identity of the narrator is quite confusing in all the stories in ‘The Things They Carried’.

Critics and readers have always been puzzled by this. The narrator himself is unidentified in the title story. However in other stories we find the narrator as Tim O'Brien a fictional character. The author himself admits the identity strife evident in the story. The third-person narrator in the story is nameless or without identity. However as the stories are interrelated we can consider this third-person narrator as fictional Tim O'Brien. The story includes constant shift of identity. The central character or the narrator is striving for identity.

Junot Diaz’s ‘How to date, a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie is yet another work in which we see a struggle for identity. Here the character is striving for her racial identity. Here th