Brion Gregerson Mr.

Ludlow-Mattson English 114 October 19, 2013 Formation of Identification

Gregerson 1

The formation of an identity is based upon the childhood of a person and their relationship to their surroundings as a youth. A persons life is dictated through their childhood, but whether one decides to conform to the expectations set for them based upon their environment, is completely up to the individual. Childhood determines an ever- present identity that is instilled in a person throughout their entire life, which one may revert back to at any moment, as this identity can be at the forefront of a persons actions or suppressed in the back of their mind. In both Sherman Alexies The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Ta-Nehisi Coates A Culture of Poverty, the main protagonists identity are formed as young people growing up in a world of poverty and violence; however, as they adapt to new societies, they learn to muffle this identity and at the same time, keep it engrained in everything they do. Sherman Alexie, in his book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, shows the story of how his main protagonist, Arnold Spirit, is influenced by his roots of being an Indian on a reservation. He forms an identity early in his life, but when he travels to a different world, that is Reardon, he feels a need to become a new person and shed his Indian background. However, as his time in Reardon progresses, he comes to the realization that his identity that he formed early in his life on the reservation is

Gregerson 2 instilled in him and is impossible to completely get rid of. When Arnold took Penelope to the Winter Formal he Only had five dollars, not nearly enough to pay for anything- not for photos, not for food, not for gas, not for a hot dog and soda pop. If it had been any other dance, a regular dance, I would have stayed home with an imaginary illness. But I couldnt skip Winter Formal. And if I didnt take Penelope then she would have certainly gone with someone else (119). For Junior in this instance, he had to fight to keep Penelope as his girlfriend, and he knew that he had to lie in order to keep her. He had to bear a different persona in order for her to accept him, or so he thought. He thought that he couldnt admit to Penelope that he was poor because that would have b een equivalent to giving up and conceding her. For the Winter Formal dance, he had to suppress the poor, lowly person that he knew he was and in a way, become a completely different person that he had no experience being. Arnolds action of, in a way, faking a new identity to reach his desired results shows perfectly how a persons youth identity is ever present, though it may be muffled in order to appear as a completely different person than they truly are. Arnold took his identity that was formed on the reservation into his new setting at Reardon. He had followed the rules of fighting. I had behaved exactly the way I was supposed to behave. But these white boys had ignored the rules. In fact, they followed a whole other set of mysterious rules where people apparently DID NOT GET INTO FISTFIGHTS (65-66). For Junior, fighting has always been something that was engrained in his identity such that on the reservation, people were looked down upon if they didnt choose to fight. He brought this identity to Reardon since he could not shed

Gregerson 3 who he is, and after he punched Roger and made him bleed, he began to realize that the codes that he abided by on the reservation could not be followed in the new society he was entering at Reardon. Junior comes to the conclusion that he must muffle his identity that he gained on the reservation as a youth in order to become accepted in his new society. Similar to Alexie, is Coates way of thinking that can lead to one drawing several parallels between Coates and Junior. Coates was raised to always adhere to Article 2 of the Code of the Streets-- Thou Shalt Not Be Found A Punk. Had the gentleman stepped outside, I had already made the decision that I was going to swing. I didnt believe in threatening people and then not following through (Coates). Coates, in his life as a journalist, has to hide his identity that he gained as a youth because it would not be accepted in the professional society that he finds himself in as an editor. However, this identity will always stay with him in the back of his mind, and he may resort back to his former self if a situation rises where he feels threatened. He knew in his mind that he was never going to back down from a fight since the identity that he formed as a child growing up in Baltimore has never fully escaped him; it will be always be a part of him, even if he attempts to separate himself from his former life. Coates reiterates that If you are a young person living in an environment where violence is frequent and random, the willingness to meet any hint of violence with yet more violence is a shield. Some people take to this lesson easier than others. As a kid, I hated fightingnot simply the occurring of pain, but the actual dishing it out (Coates). The shield that Coates speaks of here is the fighting back against the people in a culture

Gregerson 4 that stresses toughness and the idea that a person should never back down from a fight. Fighting can mask if a person scared, and a person growing up in an environment such as Coates did, there is often no choice but to learn and adopt violent tendencies since many people are malicious around them. This becomes engrained in a persons psyche in a sense that they will revert back to this previous way of thinking heir entire life; fighting has become a part of their identity, so even though a person may attempt to suppress these actions, if violence is ever brought about, the identity they had as a youth can come back suddenly. So in the professional setting that Coates finds himself in as an editor, these actions would be unacceptable, but they are things that have filled his mind and are ever- present in his actions, regardless of whether his environment is professional or informal. Another instance that reveals a persons identity is formed as a youth is the different paths that the Reardon kids have compared to the children on the reservation. Arnold notices that All the seniors on our team were going to college. All of the guys on our team had their own cars. All of the guys on our team had iPods and cell phones and PSPs and three pairs of blue jeans and ten shirts and mothers and fathers who went to church and had good jobs (195). Here, Junior really comes to accept the notion that unlike every other Indian on his reservation, he has the chance to become something like the people he surrounded himself with at Reardon. He knows that he has to become like the seniors on his basketball team at Reardon, and to do this he must suppress his identity as the Indian on a reservation; however, he can never fully escape this identity as an Indian, and the only way that he sees to succeed and escape typical Indian life is hiding

Gregerson 5 that identity that he has gained as a youth on the reservation. To become like these seniors at Reardon on the basketball team, and escape the uncertain future that is presented to every child on the reservation, he needs to hide his true identity as long as it takes to escape the reservation. This is comparable to Coates, who comes to the realization that he must hide his identity that he formed as a child in the new society belongs to in order to be accepted. Because for Coates him saying I aint no punk may shield you from neighborhood violence. But it can not shield you from algebra, when your teacher tries to correct you. It can not shield you from losing hours, when your supervisor corrects your work. And it would not have shielded me from unemployment, after I cold-cocked a guy over a blog post (Coates). In order for a person to be accepted in a professional setting, such as the journalistic world that Coates adopted, they must act in a way that is opposite to what he was taught as a youth growing up in Baltimore. People in these circumstances must learn to muffle their past identity to form a new one that is acceptable in the new social setting they find themselves in. If a person says the same things and performs the same actions as they did in an area that stressed fighting, they would be looked down in a professional setting simply because that is not the way a person is supposed to act. Although a person cannot ever completely shed their identity they had a youth, as it will always be in the back of their mind either consciously or unconsciously, they must learn to suppress this identity to be accepted in new settings that dont recognized childish behaviors and tendencies.

Gregerson 6 Both of these two texts by Alexie and Coates are arguing that identities are formed as a child growing up, which cannot be shed and will be present in a persons life forever. Personally, I would agree with this argument based upon the fact that people so often revert back to how they acted as a child when faced with uncomfortable or unusual circumstances; peoples actions, thoughts and identities they had as a child are their comfort zone, which makes digressing to this previous state so easy. I would also agree with the notion that, as these two writes presented, childhood identity dictates the path that a person will embark on, as it is up to the individual if they decide to either conform to a societys expectations for them, or shatter that mold that was set for them. Moreover, the identity that people formed in their childhood is never completely gone from the person, as both Coates and Alexie reveal. I agree with this point that they are making since I believe that people have the ability to muffle this identity to portray themselves in the way that their new society as an adult wants them to be. Also, I would say that this identity as an adult is not a persons true identity because unlike their childhood, people as they age and get accustomed to a new society, pinpoint what kind of person is socially accepted and they begin to conform to that type of being. So as I see it, not conforming to societys standards and expectations helps one create their own life path, but as an adult, conforming to ones society is a crucial part that determines whether they will be successful or not. Keeping ones identity that they obtained in their childhood is a critical part of having an identity as an adult, as it can be faked as an adult, but not as a child. As a

Gregerson 7 person moves into adulthood, they can, in a way, change the person they are by simply conforming to societal expectations. I am not saying this is a bad thing, as it can lead a person to becoming successful, but that is not a true identity. Identity is truly formed subconsciously as a child growing up under the circumstances they are put in, from a person who is born to a rich family in an upscale neighborhood or a poor one on an Indian reservation. Identity cannot be faked as a child, as it grows to be an innate part of a persons being that will stay with them one way or another for their entire lifetime.

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Little Brown and Company, 2007. Print.