American Beauty Revolutionary Road And Shame Analysis
2.3.1 Identity Formation and Challenged Identity
On a daily basis, individuals of the human species living in social contact with each other pose one elementary, easy question to their communication partners: Who are you? Although a man would not immediately answer the question with, “I am male. I am the guy with those nicely shaped abs” (well, possibly some even would), one’s sex, prevailing gender roles, and one’s embodied self constitute significant components contributing to the construction of one’s identiy. In the situation of a first encounter with an unfamiliar person, however, the most common way to react to this question is perhaps to state one’s name. Depending on the type of conversation, one might add further information concerning …show more content…
The conception of one’s identity can, however, also get challenged by the change of the aforementioned categories, referring to the individual person, such as nationality, religion, sexual orientation, family status, etc. Moving to another country, converting to another religion, strolling along the street and noticing that one is not exclusively attracted to the opposite sex, marrying (maybe beyond or above one’s own social class) – all these incidents put one’s identity to the test and, mostly, require a new formation process of one’s identity. With respect to an alteration of one’s identity, one of the most crucial and interesting categories represents age due to its inexorable continuity. Biological age represents the only category that cannot be modified by one’s own choice (ven sex and ethnicity can be changed to a certain extent, at least superficially, but not overnight, of course). Thus, age determines one’s identity and gradually re-defines it – willingly or not. Despite any attempts of compensation, such as healthy eating, lifting weights, or keeping a ‘young spirit’, the process of biological aging cannot be stopped in the long run. Thereforel, it can be very challenging to accept corporal and mental decay as well as associated generation roles. As a consequence, especially men in their fourties undergo a phenomenon of what has become known as ‘mid-life
On a daily basis, individuals of the human species living in social contact with each other pose one elementary, easy question to their communication partners: Who are you? Although a man would not immediately answer the question with, “I am male. I am the guy with those nicely shaped abs” (well, possibly some even would), one’s sex, prevailing gender roles, and one’s embodied self constitute significant components contributing to the construction of one’s identiy. In the situation of a first encounter with an unfamiliar person, however, the most common way to react to this question is perhaps to state one’s name. Depending on the type of conversation, one might add further information concerning …show more content…
The conception of one’s identity can, however, also get challenged by the change of the aforementioned categories, referring to the individual person, such as nationality, religion, sexual orientation, family status, etc. Moving to another country, converting to another religion, strolling along the street and noticing that one is not exclusively attracted to the opposite sex, marrying (maybe beyond or above one’s own social class) – all these incidents put one’s identity to the test and, mostly, require a new formation process of one’s identity. With respect to an alteration of one’s identity, one of the most crucial and interesting categories represents age due to its inexorable continuity. Biological age represents the only category that cannot be modified by one’s own choice (ven sex and ethnicity can be changed to a certain extent, at least superficially, but not overnight, of course). Thus, age determines one’s identity and gradually re-defines it – willingly or not. Despite any attempts of compensation, such as healthy eating, lifting weights, or keeping a ‘young spirit’, the process of biological aging cannot be stopped in the long run. Thereforel, it can be very challenging to accept corporal and mental decay as well as associated generation roles. As a consequence, especially men in their fourties undergo a phenomenon of what has become known as ‘mid-life