Each one of us, no matter the race, age, or gender, is born into a certain identity. Each has his or her own physical appearance and stereotypical composure. However, identity in the truest sense is one that we create for ourselves; an opportunity to transcend the identity with which we are born.
There are many examples of this in literature both old and new. For example, in the classic Jane Eyre,
Jane is raised as a timid girl, shadowed by her cousins and villifying aunt, only to be sent away to boarding school, where uniformity was encouraged and free-flying ideas scorned. Had Jane simply decided to adhere to this “identity” shoved upon her, she would not have been able to grow and mature as a person. Thankfully for
Jane, she decided to break free of this norm and embark on her own search for understanding and identity, eventually changing her views and morphing into a grown woman worth of the elusive title of a classic heroine.
Modern literature is not scarce in example either. In a novel titled Scribbler of Dreams, Kate’s identity is that of a Malone, the family that the Crutchfields, their distant relatives, despite with all the loathing worth of generations upon generations of malice between the two. Much to Kate’s dismay, she finds herself in love wiht
Bram Crutchfield. Family squabbles have lent prejudice to Bram’s faction, however, and Kate’s single struggle is to break free of the typical Malone identity and show Bram that he should love her for who she really is.
Through a series of events, Kate learns important lessons that developer her own new character and identity by allowing herself to expand beyond what was “expected” of a Malone, to learn