The term “identity” refers to a person’s individuality. All people have their own self identifications which make them different from others. Simply, the identity makes who you are. Some people just know their identities in the first place without searching for one, and some other people have troubles looking for their identities. Those who are confused about their identities usually want and force them to find their "true" identities. True identity refers to a person's realness. For instance, a person could be identified as a black to others because of his skin color, but he could be also classified as an American if he doubtlessly believes that his true identity is American. In ...view middle of the document...
As a result, Okonkwo is satisfied with Nwoye’s change and Nwoye finally receives approval from his father. However, “Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent, but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell” (Achebe 53). Although he thinks being violent is a rightful form that would please his father, he still misses his mother’s stories of “the tortoise and his wily ways” (53). This shows how Nwoye is acting totally opposite from his real identity. After the death of Ikemefuna, Nwoye decides to run away from his father’s shadow. Eventually, he converts his religion to Christianity, although Okonkwo disfavors taking in new traditions, and lastly he discards his father’s irritation. He founds a true identity of him by discovering Christianity, which fits best for him and escaping from his father.
Nwoye exhibits his desire for an exploration of true self, and after he finally found it, it gave him peaceful and steady life without the pressure from Okonkwo. Things Fall Apart gives a reason why looking for a true identity is so important to people by characterizing Nwoye and his life of chasing an identity.
David from Giovanni’s Room and Janet Mock who wrote Redefining Realness show another importance of true identity, but a little different from Nwoye of Things Fall Apart, which is specifically sexual identity. In the novel, Giovanni’s Room, David is gay but his family and the society do not approve him to love same sex as him. So he goes to France to find his truthfulness. He meets a guy in the bar, who is Giovanni and eventually fall in love with him. However, he has a fiancé, Hella, whom he decides to marry because he also could not approve his attraction towards to guys. David abandons Giovanni, but he couldn’t get along well with Hella too. In the end of the novel, David loses both Giovanni and Hella, and eventually, he encounters guilt and unhappiness, as a result of a failure of looking for his sexual identity and protecting his love.
In contrast to David, Janet Mock who wrote Redefining Realness found her true sexual identity and redefined it, just like her book’s title. She was born as a boy with male reproductive organ between her legs. Without Janet’s notion, a society concluded her as the gender of a male. However, she was so anxious about her gender because she exhibited female personalities, and wanted girls’ clothes and makeup. Eventually, she noticed how she wants her to be a real woman, and as she grows up, she became more definite about her sexuality. In Janet’s autobiography, Redefining Realness, it tells how she went through all the difficulties such as the criticisms and disapprovals from others. Nevertheless, she did not give up her true identity of woman. With the help of her friend, Wendi, and her mother, she could finally become a woman physically by sex reassignment surgery. After Janet became a women both in intellectually and physically, she found her life with a full...
