Griffin Rodriquez
English 110
26 September 2013
What Makes You Who You Are?
Your personal identity is one of the most important things you have. It makes you who you are. It is made up of all your life experience, all your knowledge, your family, your culture, everything. There are no two personal identities that are exactly the same. Thus the reason why they are personal identities. You would be amazed to see who you turn out to be as you get older. How every experience in your life has molded you into the human being that looks back at you in the mirror every day. It is amazing how you can find out about yourself in the most random of places such as, the diary of a Nazi in Susan Griffin’s case, or the fictional writings of an author in Richard Rodriguez’s case.
Griffin and Rodriquez both have very different styles of writing. They are different in many ways, such as their culture, where they draw their information from, and just their overall lives in general. At the same time however, they are similar. They both go through a period of personal discovery, trying to find out who they really are in life and what they are meant to do. They both also use stories throughout their essays to draw knowledge and more personal information out of. Even though Griffin uses non-fiction stories to find her personal identity while Rodriquez uses fiction to find his. Rodriquez also uses stories to tell about how once something is said it is near impossible to take back.
Susan Griffin, the author of the essay Our Secrets, argues that there is not just one thing that makes a person who they are. “Like a field of gravity that is created by the movements of many bodies. Each life is influenced and it in turn becomes an influence. Whatever is a cause is also an effect. Childhood experience is just one element in the determining field.” (Griffin 340). The determining field is something that consists of pretty much everything in your life. All the events, all the people, and all the
26 September 2013
What Makes You Who You Are?
Your personal identity is one of the most important things you have. It makes you who you are. It is made up of all your life experience, all your knowledge, your family, your culture, everything. There are no two personal identities that are exactly the same. Thus the reason why they are personal identities. You would be amazed to see who you turn out to be as you get older. How every experience in your life has molded you into the human being that looks back at you in the mirror every day. It is amazing how you can find out about yourself in the most random of places such as, the diary of a Nazi in Susan Griffin’s case, or the fictional writings of an author in Richard Rodriguez’s case.
Griffin and Rodriquez both have very different styles of writing. They are different in many ways, such as their culture, where they draw their information from, and just their overall lives in general. At the same time however, they are similar. They both go through a period of personal discovery, trying to find out who they really are in life and what they are meant to do. They both also use stories throughout their essays to draw knowledge and more personal information out of. Even though Griffin uses non-fiction stories to find her personal identity while Rodriquez uses fiction to find his. Rodriquez also uses stories to tell about how once something is said it is near impossible to take back.
Susan Griffin, the author of the essay Our Secrets, argues that there is not just one thing that makes a person who they are. “Like a field of gravity that is created by the movements of many bodies. Each life is influenced and it in turn becomes an influence. Whatever is a cause is also an effect. Childhood experience is just one element in the determining field.” (Griffin 340). The determining field is something that consists of pretty much everything in your life. All the events, all the people, and all the