Response to Satrapi and Cisneros

"The House on Mango Street" was a short and quick reading that I enjoyed. I thought it was interesting that the young girl telling the story never introduced herself or said her name at the beginning of the story. She waited until the story was over and than took a separate time to explain her name and what it meant to her. You can tell that Esperanza isn't completely happy with her identity. She talks about how in English it sounds harsh but in Spanish it is "softer". When she explained the part about the nun passing by her house and asking if she lived there I think that Esperanza got a new view of people as well as her life that day. I believe that it was hard for her to not want something better.

Satrapi's short comic story called The Veil was talking about a young girl and her life during the Islamic Revolution. I personally think that she was also trying to find her identity and trying to get involved in what was going on at the time. It talks about how ladies had to start wearing veils and how some believed that it was taking away their freedom and they wanted it back. Towards the end of the comic you could tell that the young girl was trying to become more and more involved because of her social surroundings and the family and friends around her.

Reading and Response to Gee

Identity is who you are as an individual person. It's your feelings and thoughts as well as how you portray yourself. People are always giving off an impression and a reflection of their identity. I think that everyone does have a true identity but that identity can change in result of who you are with and your social surroundings. I personally have definitely seen people change their identities when they are in different places with different people. For instance, you make act one way when you're talking to your mom and then act a completely different way when you are out with friends. As it says in the reading, "natural identities can only become identities because they are recognized, by myself or others..." Your natural identity can only be known if you are comfortable with showing it around others during that particular time. I know someone personally who acts a certain way when he is with one group of friends and then is a completely different person when he is with other people. These pages talk about people having different identities. There are identities such as ethnicity, language, religion, etc. and then there are ways in which people individually act. History and background can most definitely effect how someone portrays themselves as well as what they believe their true identity is.

blog about self

Memoir: Make decisions for your own happiness

I think that the points I made in my gesture, memoir, and my letter all define who I am today. Even if all of them don't go hand in hand they still represent parts of me as a person. My gesture being dance helps explain what I do to express myself and how important it can be to express thoughts through movement. Dance was always an outlet for me to get things out that I wasn't comfortable or confident saying. My letter describes the kind of person that I am today and the kind of person that I would like to be in the future. Although it was a simple letter it gave an idea of what my identity is. My memoir describes my experiences and what I believe. I have observed many people who make decisions based on other people's opinions and I personally think that doing something like that can have an impact on your whole future. Since this was a topic that just asked about me as a person and how I relate to certain things I don't think that my fellow classmates put any restrictions on what I had to say. It was pretty straight forward and easy to talk about.