Personal Identity

The personal identity of one's life can be represented in several different ways. The two essays that compare in personal identities are Wanderers By Choice and Chameleons and Codas by Eva Hoffman and Patricia Conrad. Personal identity determines whom and where one belongs in today's society. One's identity can be described with an adjective or a noun, which in the two essays are chameleons, deaf, a nomad and an exile.
The identity one can have can be classified as a noun. In Chameleons and Codas, Patricia Conrad can be recognized as a Chameleon. Patricia is able to change her identity from either being deaf or able hearing. "I had the ability to hear, so how can I understand the deaf experience? Yet I was never truly "hearing" either; a piece of my heart remained staunchly "deaf." So I became a chameleon changing my color as I shifted from one world to another." (Conrad, 225) In the essay Wanderers by Choice Eva classifies those who are constantly at a journey, as nomads. Nomads and chameleons are both very similar as there is no place from which one can be excluded from. "Among nomads, exile loses its charge because there is no place from which one can be expelled." (Hoffman, 310) Being a chameleon enables one to switch from one identity to another so that they can find a place in society they can fit under. Being like a chameleon is very much like being a nomad by traveling from place to place to seek a society they can be accepted to.
Being unable to talk and listen to the ones around you is very similar to being exile. Those who can talk are included into the society around them as a result of the similarities they have in common. Being deaf is classified as being a handicap in today's society. "My father, too, was saddled with disabled and handicapped stereotypes. "Can your daddy drive?" A stranger asked, incredulous, as dad and I strode toward our car one day." (Conrad, 226) An exile is one who does not fit in a certain society. Being exile means to feel ejected from a sense of belonging. Being deaf is may also be identified as an exile a deaf person who is separated from the general society due to their "disability." In a sense they are similar as a result of being *an outcast in the society they live in.
To be a chameleon is to have different identities. With two separate identities of being able to hear and be deaf, a chameleon can fit in two cultures. "We learned early that such deaf cultural norms are taboo in the hearing world." This means that a language can be classified under another culture, which leads to an identity of its own. "Cross-cultural movement has become the norm," being exile is being able to freely move from one location to another. Thus meaning that by being exile, it enables one to become part of the many cultures that they have been a part of in their travels. The relevance of a chameleon and an exile is the two being part of the many cultures but under one identity. By being a chameleon or an exile they are able to change into different cultures they at one' will.
Identity is something one must have to be classified as who they are. Identity enables one to be placed into a category in society and it gives an ideal sense of belonging. Two essays show similar aspects of one another of how being a nomad and a chameleon both share the commonalities of finding a place to belong. Those who are deaf are also similar to those who are exile; they both are outcast in the society. Lastly being a chameleon and an exile is similar to having other cultures, they both experience more then one culture in the societies they witness.