How Individuals Shape Their Own Identity In A Streetcar Named Desire

Every person in the world has a different identity. Everyone also has a different understanding of who and how they came to be the person they are today. I believe that individuals are free to shape their own identities to the extent that they change the paths given to them. A person can be raised one way and change their opinions along the way based on different things they see and learn. While a person has their own identity, they gained that identity from experiences influenced by others.

From birth, everyone is being meticulously shaped by their surroundings. Every instinct, fear, obsession and moral opinion has been influenced by the people around you. Individuals do not have the complete freedom to shape their own identities because of

We saw this in action in the play, A

Streetcar Named Desire, when we learned that Blanche and Stella were both raised on a plantation in the Old South. They also received higher education than most due to their financial status. We saw how this showed through Blanche’s identity because of her prejudice against working-class traits. Even though Stella had immediately welcomed Blanche into her home,

Blanche had criticized their home. She said, “explain this place to me. What are you doing in a place like this?” (page 12) and “Oh, I’m not going to be hypocritical, I’m going to be honestly critical about it” (page 12). Blanche continued to judge her lifestyle by asking why she “had to live in these conditions!” (page 12) Blanche's upbringing showed through and how it affected her identity towards poverty in this scene.

While this shows that your upbringing affects your identity in your later life, it also shows that you can change the way you see things because of your experiences. Blanche’s sister,

Stella, married a working- class man and settled down in a small town with an apartment. She had the choice to stay up with her rich lifestyle, but decided that she wanted to follow her

This continues to show that even though you can make your own choices that influence your identity, your past is still what caused you to be where you are today. In the poem we see how the writer is trying to change his own identity. He says, “I do not live to retrieve or multiply what my father lost or gained” (Stanza 3, Baca). When the writer says this, he is giving the reader insight into what he wants to do with his life and identity. While he says that he isn’t going to let his father’s decisions dictate his life, this still shows that his own persistence influenced his personal identity. In this poem he talks more about how he finds himself changing daily. He says, “I continually find myself in the ruins of new beginnings, uncoiling the ropes of my life to descend ever deeper into unknown abysses” (Stanza 4, Baca).

Every little thing that people do influences their identity. It doesn’t change who someone is, but enhances their personality through the struggles and hardships they went through to get to where they are today.

We see people changing everyday, even you are changing. While you may not notice it, everything that has brought you to where you are today comes from your identity. All of