How Do Family Legacies Contribute To And/Or Inhibit An Individual's Identity

Billie Hensley
Bonnie Wolfe
Eng. 122
11/22/2012
Is an individual made from the roots he or she is from? People’s personal identities and family along with cultural legacies all go together to create an individual person, but an individual person’s identity is made from their own personal experiences in life. How do family traditions and legacies contribute to and/or inhibit an individual’s identity? Or is self-identities created from one’s own self? Self-identity is what a person thinks about one’s self and what his or her place is in the world. A person’s identity is made up of his or her own personal experiences and searching within one’s
character. This is one characteristic that is not given to people by their genes or from their family. There are hundreds of ways a person becomes who they are. These include but not limited to, his or hers own, family , DNA, origins , thoughts, dreams, ambitions, actions, responses, appearance, love, emotions , flaws, successes, failures , friends , enemies, parents, bloodlines, movements, and/or experiences. When actually there is one thing that is more responsible for the final result in one’s personal self-identity that make up each unique individual and that is his or her own personal experiences. People’s family traditions and cultural legacies does contribute to the making of an individual’s self-identity but, the personal experiences a person goes through is what shapes a person into who they are as an adult. Family traditions do more than mark a milestone, they can also serve as a guidepost, helping shape a person’s life and foster values.
Family traditions are a mixture of people’s attitudes, ideas, and cultures in which a person learns values. Family traditions do help people build characteristics that involve their self and others around them. A person’s family can help make the final result of who or how an individual person turns out, but only if that person chooses to follow these traditions and keep them alive. People are different in many ways but they are also alike in many ways. Families are one of the ways people are alike and the social upbringing one may have had. The traditions in a family are one of the ways people are different. Family traditions are a social and personal identity that everyone develops that belong to a family or a group. The family and all that is inherited helps people become who they are as adults. Also, as individual people they do not have to follow what they were taught while growing up. Some people are considered the black sheep in their family. This is because they do not act and/or believe in the same manor that their family taught them. They go against the cultural norm and do not act or believe the same way they were taught when growing up. People are given values and goals to help them be guided in life, but some do not follow guidance and do or believe the way they feel is in their best
interest. Cultural legacies can help determine the personal identity of a person but it also can change through the generations. Cultural legacies is when something that is handed down to an individual person from their ancestors; such as money, land, bills, or anything that can be passed along to future generations. This can help or hurt a person in his or her life it depends on which they inherit. For example, if their ancestors had a bunch of bills then died the people who are alive can inherit those individual bills and this would hinder an individual person’s future. The reason the person who inherited the bills would have a harder future is because, they would have to repay things that never directly benefited them and this would take money away from that person’s situation. The culture in which a person comes from can help or hinder who he or she is also their legacy can do the same. Culture legacies can help an individual to follow the family or to branch out on one’s own to create their own identity. For years, social scientists and others have debated whether an individual’s identity is made from one’s nurture or nature. After researching people’s lives scientists see that a combination of social, family, and personal experiences is what makes up an individual person’s identity. The personal views that each person has of his or her own self is the key to self-happiness and to their family’s happiness. There are many issues involving the creation or destruction of one’s own identity. People who have low self-esteem also has poor health, due to depression. People with high self-esteem usually have a healthier life, due to the energy and exercise that is put to use by their body. People need to have a high self-esteem for their selves, this is one way to ensure the fullest out of his or her own life and also those around them. The legacies and the family traditions normally win, to help shape or mold people into the individual person they are. One of the most important parts that have to do with creating a person’s self-esteem is the family that reared them. This is because this is the most socializing anyone does; is with his or her own family. People often make the role they play in a family the most important part of their life without even realizing it. One’s reflected actions has been the main focus to families and how each member’s self-esteem turns out as an adult. The most important characteristic to help make the final product for one’s self esteem is his or her own personal experiences. This essay helps people see only small parts that help make up the family traditions and cultural legacies which, make a person’s self-reflection. A person’s self-identity is made from a considerable amount of family traditions and cultural legacies but, the individual personal experiences are what gives an adult the rest of that person’s self-identity.

Works Cited
James, Missy & Alan P. Merickel, eds. Reading Literature and Writing Argument 4th Ed. Boston: Pearson, 2011. Print.