George 1

Khyasia George
Teacher: Chiera
ENG3U1-15
25 July 2018
Identity: A Digital Anthology
The Theme of Identity:
An Annotated Bibliography

Marisol. I Believe Friends Shape Your Identity. Lansing, Michigan: this i believe, 2010. Print.

In this essay the author, Marisol, gives us her point of view on identity. She makes

two points in this essay about identity; that your identity never stops changing and that

your friends are a big influence on your identity. Marisol explains how identities never

change by giving us an incite in her change. She explains how in her earlier years she was

miserable but once she converted to Christianity she changed, she was no longer

miserable. This change in her identity was because of her friend. Her friend was the one

that introduced her to Christianity. In life our friends are often the people who influence

our lives most. Marisol tells us that we are who we are because of the influences of our

friends, without them it would be very difficult to figure out our identity. This essay was

very useful and reliable. She stated her main points and backed them up with her own

personal experience. The author’s main idea and other information that she gave us is

very common many other authors have the same or similar ideas.

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street, “My Name”. United States: Arte Público Press,

…………1984. Print.

In this short story the narrator tells us about her name and how it identifies her. She

tells us how her name has a lot of meaning because it was passed on from her great
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grandmother. She tells us how although she loves the name and what it means, she

doesn’t want to follow in the steps of the woman she got the name from. She tells us how

the name itself doesn’t have meaning, but the story behind it. Her great-grandmother had

a name but lived a miserable life along with it and Esperanza didn’t want to live that

same miserable life. She says, “I have inherited her name, but I don’t want to inherit her

place by the window”. This story tells us that even though we have the names, they don’t

define us. We put meaning into our names, our names don’t put meaning into us. This is

one of the more unique ideas on identity that I have heard. It has always been said that

what are names mean are important and I believed it but hearing this notion from

Esperanza’s perspective shed light on the true purpose of names and how they relate to

out identities.

Gottfriedson, Garry. Whiskey Bullets, “An identity Crisis”. British Columbia: Ronsdale Press,

…………….2006. Print.

In this poem the author talks about his identity and the crisis that he faces with it. He

talks about how he is comfortable with people referring to him as many things but not

Indian. He says, “call me cowboy, call me First Nations, call me aboriginal, call me

native, but never call me Indian”. The author like many people of First Nation’s decent

do not like being called Indian by anyone else, it is extremely offensive to them. This is

the same for many people of different nationalities who identify as something but are not

comfortable with others referring to them as such. This article tells us that our identity is

our decision, and everyone has the right to be identified by what they choose. The poet

described his situation was in a good way adding humor. If people refer to someone with
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a demeaning term, it can offend people and make them feel bad about their identity.

Gottfriedson addressed this important issue that many people deal with on a daily basis.

Push: Future. “Identity SHORT FILM (Award Winning Inspirational Short)”. Online video clip,

…… YouTube. YouTube, 24 May 2012. Web.

In this video we learn about identity by explaining it to us using a metaphor. The

metaphor that is used compares people’s identity to mask that we wear. We see the

different students walking around each wearing masks. We see a group of girls who all

want to look pretty like the girl on the poster hung on the wall, they are all wearing the

same masks (2.11). This shows us that people will change their identity to be something

they are not. We also see a girl who is with one group of people and then takes off that

mask to reveal another one when she is with another group (2.32). This shows us that

people have many different identities depending on who they are with and where they

are. From this short film we also learn that it is important to stay true to our real

identities, to not try and be something we are not.

Anna. The Lion King Taught Me About My Identity. Philmont, New York: think i believe, 2009.

………Print

In this essay the author tells about her experience watching the movie, The Lion King,

and what it taught her about personal identity. This is one of the few essays that I have

found that actually address identity from a self-aspect, it was written very well and

approached the idea from a unique aspect. In the essay the author relates herself to

Simba, a young lion who after the death of his father tried to figure out who he was. The

author shares with us that her identity was hard to discover because of her self-esteem
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issues. She says, “Simba needs faith in himself and the only way that can happen is if he

sees the good in him”. When she watched this movie, she realized that the only thing

about her identity that really matter was her opinion on it. If you don’t believe in yourself

or you think that you are worth anything, how can you have an identity? How can your

friends, family or people around you help you build that identity? A person’s identity

always starts with them. They need to look inside themselves and find a good foundation

for that identity like how Simba used the example his father set for him. This essay tells

us that we have to take our identity in our own hands first. As the author says, “I can’t

rely on an old baboon to come whack me on the head at the opportune moment”.