Examples Of Identity In Born A Crime

A Consideration of Identity

A person's identity consists of two things: the identity others perceive and the identity a person feels on the inside. Society plays a huge role in influencing both aspects of identity; sometimes by taking it upon itself to force an identity onto a person, an identity that does not always coincide with how that person feels about themself, and oftentimes by causing a person to change their presented identity to please society. In the memoir Born a Crime, Trevor Noah's life is a perfect example of this struggle. Trevor Noah shows both how one has the ability to identify as one so chooses, and how one's presented identity is often largely influenced by one's environment and circumstances.

Systems like Apartheid

But he does what he can to make people perceive him in a positive way. In a world where Noah is not automatically accepted into any group because of his being mixed-race, he puts in effort in order to be accepted into every group by molding himself into a character that meets their standards. In order to help him with this, and at his mother's insistence, Noah learns a handful of South Africa's many languages. Being multilingual is, arguably, one of the best things that could have happened to Noah. As he grows up, he learns that language is one of the most decisive dividing or uniting factors. In his memoir, Noah claims, "Language brings with it an identity and a culture, or at least the perception of it. A shared language says 'we're the same.' A language barrier says 'we're different'" (Noah 49). He uses his talent for languages to move through the world swiftly, appeasing those who he interacts with by talking to them in their own language. Not only does Noah learn how to speak in people's languages literally, but he gains the ability to speak in people's languages figuratively as well. Starting in his teenage years, Noah learns how to glide through different social cliques, listening to them talk about their interests and interacting with them based on that. Noah says, "I'd found my niche. Since I belonged to no group I learned to move seamlessly between groups. I floated. I was a chameleon, still, a cultural chameleon. I learned how to blend" (Noah 140). Noah is constantly presenting a different type of person to everyone he meets, basing his actions on the person he is interacting with, which shows how easily a person's identity can be influenced by their