“Tag” is an essay written by Amy Bernhard. The themes in “Tag” enable the reader to learn a deeper message. One continuing theme throughout the story is that we can’t be anyone we want to be although we may try. Pushing ourselves to be someone else does not work. Another theme in the essay is that we can create tension and pressure by pretending to be someone you are really not, will make it very hard to find who you truly are. Examples within the text helped me determine, understand, and relate to the theme. From the very start of the story the narrator and writer, Amy, gave us clues on whom or what she was trying to be. She begged her mother to shop for her in the boys department of JC Pennys and wears clothes that are baggy with sport slogans on them. …show more content…
Amy was not only pretending to be tougher than whom she was, but she was also pretending to be a boy. Her father wanted a boy and Amy tries to be one to gain a relationship with him. She pushed the characteristic of being a tomboy outside of her limits that it is uncomfortable. In the end, she pulls her pants down. Symbolically, she comes to terms with who she really is. She is a plain girl in “plain white cotton underwear” underneath her baggy basketball shorts. Amy has done things to be a tomboy, and not to be herself. I can relate to this “deeper message” because I struggled with finding my own identity after I began to be home-schooled. I had gotten used to doing and liking what everyone else did in middle school. As a result, I lost my own since of uniqueness. While being home-schooled, I had to experiment on my own and see what I liked and what I did not. Other readers can relate to this theme as often times people dream or try to be a person that they are not, and learn lessons from the