How Does Culture Influence Society's Identity

Everyone is born with their own unique identity; these identities are largely influenced by the society and culture around them. Society shapes people to believe what is and what isn't acceptable. All throughout history humans have battled with what they believe is their true identity, and what society believes their identity should be. A common theme of literature is to capture the constant struggle between individuals and their communities. This struggle with society can be seen in many works such as: The Crucible, The Scarlet Letter, The Awakening, and "The Birthmark". Society influences the identities of mankind through the expectations and roles assigned to them.

The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, depicts the story of multiple
Georgiana allows society’s influence to change her identity, by letting it change how she thinks of herself. At the beginning of “The Birthmark” Georgiana is fond of the small mark on her face as shown in the quote “To tell you the truth it has been so often called a charm that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so.” (Hawthorne 1). Her being fond of the mark symbolizes that her individual identity is still intact at this point. Georgiana's husband Aylmer asks her if she would ever want it removed, because it was the only thing keeping her from perfection in his eyes. Then Georgiana becomes disgusted with the mark as shown in the quote “Either remove this hand, or take my wretched life!” (Hawthorne 3). By allowing Alymer's opinion to change her own, Georgiana forfeits her identity in order to please Aylmer/society. These two quotes show how over time Georgiana allowed Aylmer to influence her own opinion of herself, therefore changing her identity. "The Birthmark" teaches us that trying to become society's idea of perfect isn't always in your best interest, especially in Georgiana's