Lara Hammoud

Valerie Fong
English 1S.02
1 February 2016
The Nature Of Identity

If you go into a room full of people and look at everyones cell phone, you will
notice how each phone is different. Some might have colorful phone cases with unique
designs, others might have bought their phones from different countries, and there are
people who dont even own a phone. Each ones phone in that room was different from
the other because being different is what makes you who you are. Your surroundings,
appearance, friends, family, relationships, experiences, fears, even the music you listen
to, thats all you. Your nature of identity, is who you are. The environment around you,
the fears and expectations you carry, and the change you deal with are the key
concepts to understand the nature of identity.
To me a persons environment is the main concept of identity. Things such as
culture, food, language, and place of birth, all count as ones environment. I was born in
Beirut, Lebanon located in the Middle East, so my first language is Arabic. I eat
Lebanese food and practice cultural holidays and traditions. Whenever I get asked to
talk about my identity, this is the first thing I say, because my background is the main
aspect of me. Dave Zirin starts off his article, Standing With Caster, by talking about
his characters background environment. The first sentence of his article is, South
African runner Caster Semenya(157). He started by informing the readers where
Semenya is from and continued talking more about her environment in his second
paragraph. Lan Tran also begins with talking about the environment of her character in
her article, Lone Stars(141). She says, I am dressed in Texas, which indicates that
the story is about someone who lives in Texas. Both authors begin their texts with
explaining their characters environments in a way that helps the readers understand
the characters nature of identity which they are reading about.

I see environment as not just ones background, but also as the people around
them, the things they like to do and the experiences they hold. Family and friends tend
to play a big role in our identity as we learn and get influenced by them on daily basis.
You ask your mom about a shirt you cant find and ask your dad for a ride somewhere.
You go to a friend for an advice on a relationship and for help on a problem you go to
your professor. They are the people in our lives that help shape our identity. Arnold
Spirit gets support from his dad in Sherman Alexie's article, How To Fight Monsters
(123). On his way to a new school, Spirit explains how scared he was, but his dad was
there for him to support and encourage him. Spirit then says, I felt stronger so I
stepped out of the car and walked to the front door. This kind of support is a part of
Spirits identity. Semenya on the other hand, was surrounded by people who expected
her to act more like a girl and not be so interested in sports. Semenya then teased out
her hair and plastered her face with makeup to demonstrate just how all women she
was (157). She had to change the way she was to please others around her. Because
of those people she was surrounded with, her identity was lost.
Ones appearance is the second important key concept for understanding
Identity. I once read an article talking about how people have self-feelings and selfimages, as well as a sense of how they sound like. Having people you love surrounding
you makes you feel good about yourself. That's what I call self-feelings. Self-images, on
the other hand, they are the image we have on how we look to others. We tend to dress
nice and put makeup on to have the appearance that meets the self-image we want.
Semenyas self-image was to appear as a great South African runner. She worked so
hard to be the runner she is now, but when she wasnt allowed to run and was
humiliated, she got a sense of what she sounds like. She is the runner who was labeled
as gender variant. Semenya is a gender variant just as much as she is runner, that's
who she is. My self-image is to be viewed as a the way I am. I want to be seen as the
caring, loyal, emotional, fun, brave Lara. Sometimes I sense that I sound like Lara the

girl with the hijab and I dont mind being seen as that since thats who I am too, but
there are times where I would like to be viewed as more than just that. In How To Fight
Monsters, Spirit was seen as a poor Indian with a sad family history and no future.
Spirit appeared weak to Roger and his friends, the monsters, because he was a
different race than everyone who was white. They took advantage of that and bullied
him. Spirits self image was not to be seen as the poor indian with nothing and decided
to end the teasing and bullying by punching Roger.
In addition to environment and appearance, expectations are another concept to
understanding the nature of identity. Working up to expectations is a major part that
affects ones identity as we try so hard to meet up the expectations we set, thats our
human nature. I personally have so many expectations in my life that I have to live up
for. I expect myself to do really well in everything I attempt to do. This kind of
expectation pressures me a lot but at the same time it encourages me like a goal I live
for. I know that if I dont do well Im going to regret my decision later, and I promised
myself to never regret anything because of past experiences. My familys expectations
are the second most stressing things ever. Since Im the oldest of my siblings, my
parents and younger brothers except too much of me. My familys high expectations
created a little piece of glass inside my heart that fears me the most. I get scared that
one day I will disappoint my family and thats going to break my heart into many pieces.
Everyone has some kind of expectations they worry about. Semenya worried about
social expectations. Because she was a girl, she was expected to be girly and not
athletic like the boys. According to Zirin, there were boys who would tease her about
her athletic skills, as if it meant she wasn't quite a girl... there were the girls who
wouldn't play with her (157). Semenya was bullied for not meeting the social
expectations of acting like a girl since she is a girl. In Lone Stars, Tran was expected
to know the history of vietnam since she was vietnamese, but she didn't. When tran was
in her class and a question about vietnam appeared, her teammates expected her to

know the answer. My teammates cannot believe our luck. A vietnamese history
question!...Someone pats me on the back(143). Tran lived and was raised in Texas but
others expected her to know about the vietnamese culture because its her culture.
These expectations made tran realize that she needs to learn more about her culture,
since it was a concept of her nature of identity.
The last key concept that I believe helps understanding the nature of identity is
fear. Fear is an unpleasant feeling that people usually try and get rid of. Being afraid of
something or someone is horrible, but sometimes fear can be a good thing. My biggest
fear in life is losing the people I love and regretting something that cant be fixed. Six
years ago, my grandmother died and I blamed myself for her death. She died while she
was visiting at our house and I believed that maybe if I stayed awake I couldve saved
her from having the heart attack. I never told anyone this thinking they would blame me
more than I blame myself. Then later after I gotten older I came to realization that it
wasnt my fault. After what happened to my grandmother I became afraid of losing the
people I love. This fear allows me to show my love to those who are close to me. Fear is
good only when you can use it to be better. Unlike Semenya, I was able to use my fear
to improve in something else, but she wasnt. Running was everything to Semenya and
after it was taken away, she became on suicide watch. Just like Zirin said, she should
be preparing for the olympics. instead she is preparing for survival. Unfortunately,
Semenyas biggest fear which was not being able run already happened. I hope
Semenya would get through this tough time and finds a way she can use her fears to
become better.
Identity is the traits, social groups, background, characteristics, roles a person
own. Ones environment, appearance, expectations and fears are the four key concepts
that I believe are important to understanding the nature of identity. Its the things that
you own, the things you do, the people you meet and food you eat, the places you go to

and the things you believe are what make you different. They are what makes you who
you are.