Gerali 1

Antoinette Gerali

Ms. C. Perrotta

ENG3U

24 July 2020

Identity:

An Annotated Bibliography

Dillard, Annie. "Sojourners ." Teaching a Stone to Talk. Harper & Row, 1982.

This text is about how mangrove trees are comparable to human identity. A

mangrove tree is independent, always drifting away to different places, trying to survive.

It is similar to humans, as our identities are always forever changing, and just like

mangrove trees, us humans do not know who we will be, what we will do and where we

will go in the future. We just simply live, like mangrove trees. This source is useful as it

provides an insight about what Dillard thinks what identity is. This text supports the

argument since it implies that the identities of humans are always changing and one

should not assume or judge someone based on this.

Fritzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004.

This novel is about a man named Jay Gatsby, whose life revolves around one

desire: to reunite with Daisy Buchanan, a lost love from five years prior. Gatsby’s

identity is being affected by him chasing his dreams. He is too focused on chasing Daisy

that he is losing sight of the real him, forgetting that he has a life to live and forgetting to

take care of himself. In order for him to feel that he is worthy of Daisy, he fabricated his
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identity and lied about his past. He lied about how he got his wealth, and made things up

about where he came from. This is useful because it shows a different perspective; it

shows how chasing a dream can affect one’s identity, whether positively or negatively.

But in the case of Jay Gatsby, it leads him with a bullet on his back. This supports the

idea that one’s identity can change and be impacted by one’s surroundings and one’s

dreams.

Koul, Scaachi. Can TV Make Us Not Hate Ourselves? 2015.

<https://www.buzzfeed.com/scaachikoul/can-tv-make-us-not-hate-ourselves?

utm_term=.kbjOpK3OO#.acr8d0D88>.

This essay shows that someone’s identity can be influenced or affected by one’s

surroundings. Koul’s essay talks about how while growing up, she doesn’t know what

her identity is due to the lack of representation in the media. Koul talks about how the

lack of representation for minorities in the media can negatively affect and shape one’s

identity. This supports the argument since this essay explains that one’s identity can

change for better or worse, due to one’s surroundings, like media and their lack of

representation.

Mulan. Dirs. Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook. Walt Disney Home Entertainment. 1998.

Mulan is about a girl who is struggling to accept who she is whom her family and

the society back then want her to be. She is struggling to find what her real identity is.

The movie continues to take up the theme of identity as Mulan refuses to let her old

father join the war, as she disguises herself as a man and masks her real self to join for his

stead. This is useful because it gives another perspective about identity; how a girl masks
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her identity to go to war instead of her father, and in the end how she ends up finding her

real self. This supports the argument that society and the environment of a person can

affect a person's identity, how they view themselves and whether they will accept it, since

Mulan refuses to accept what society wants her to be, and ended up finding her real self

along the way.

Riordan, Rick. Percy Jackson. 2010.

<https://getfreestorybooks.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/7/7/107718885/riordan_rick-

percy_jackson-_the_complete_series.pdf>.

Percy Jackson, a dyslexic and arguably, a normal teenager, has his life turned

upside down as he is sent to mission to retrieve a weapon of mass destruction and return

it its rightful owner: Zeus. Percy's identity changes from a normal teenager to a son of

one of the Olympian Gods. This story follows Percy in his adventures of retrieving the

lost weapon, him accepting who his real identity is, and him becoming a hero. This

source is useful as it shows that one's identity can change in a snap of a finger. It

supports the argument that one's identity is always changing and it can be influenced by

one's surrounding.

Wagamese, Richard. Indian Horse. Douglas & McIntyre, 2012.

This story follows an Indigenous boy Saul Indian Horse as he tries to use his

talent for ice hockey to escape the traumatic place called Residential School. Saul was

taught that his culture is wrong and pimitive; the priests and nuns in the residential

schools used physcial, emotional and sexual abuse to punish the children in a way to

assimilate them to the white culture. This provides a different perspective as it shows
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how they stripped away a child's identity so they can replace it. This is a great source as

it shows how Saul lives his life trying to find his identity in hockey and other aspects of

his life. This supports the idea of how the environment of a person can affect their

identity, and how some actions can result in the loss of one's identity, Saul being an

example of this.