An Autenthic Identity Makes You Free

                                          An Authentic Identity Makes You Free

     Freedom is the ability to act according to your own will. If someone asks you, “do you have freedom?” you will probably say yes, because you live in a country where people’s freedom is the number one priority. The reality is that as a human being you are only free to think what you want and how you want it, but you are not free to express it because of the laws and the norms of the society that you belong. Due to the hypocrisy that exists between humans, in order to insert yourselves in society you must remain silent or change your ways, so you are not free at all. Identity is how you as an individual and as other people’s view is identified. It is the set of a person's own characteristics and the understanding he has of it, in relation to other people. Having knowledge of the meaning of these concepts, I dare to answer the question: “Are we free to make our own identity?”  Well…I don’t believe we are, but I do believe we are free to make our own choices depending on the authenticity of our own identity.

    You are affected by your culture, by which education you are given, books you read, food you eat, clothes you wear, dialect, TV exposure, by the politics and media that you grow up with, and especially by your family and people around you. When you are born, you are not born with a set of values and expectations, so you learn them from your parents or adults who raise you primarily. You learn not only through these adults, also by life experiences and by watching/observing. In The Complete Persepolis the narrator claims, “ I didn’t really know what to think about the veil, deep down I was very religious but as a family we were very modern and avant-garde”(6). This reflects the influence of both the society and the family, in a girl who is just beginning to form her identity. Religion represents the life in Iran while the desire for a more liberal and modern life symbolizes the values of her family. In this case the formation of her own identity is being affected by two strong but opposite influential forces. But what if she were born in a different country with another religion, or with a family with a different culture, she wouldn’t be the same person as she is. This is why your identity is built by putting together all these factors, and because you do not have the gift of choosing where, when, how and who you born by, then you are not free to make your own identity. Sometimes people try to choose their identity because they want to belong to something, whether it's a club or a gang, it gives them something tangible they can label. Where people get lost, is when they tend to follow trends, giving way to imitation. People try so hard to be what they are not, that their true identity never surfaces.

     Once you are able to identify yourself, with certain sets of values and aspirations, what makes identity problematic is the difficulty you have in keeping it authentic. In The Complete Persepolis is evident that Marjane does everything possible to integrate and be better accepted in her new life, “I didn’t like to smoke, but I did it out of solidarity.” “Then I imitated their laughter”(192) It becomes nearly impossible to be authentic because depending on the context or situation that you are placed in, you are essentially required to adjust your identity to fit those expectations. When a person is with their friends, they behave, talk, perhaps even dress in a certain way. When they are with their parents, their identity changes. At work, at school, everywhere they have to change.

     The authenticity of your own identity is what affects your freedom of choice. Even though it is not possible to be too authentic, there are people with a strong personality who are not afraid to share their thoughts no matter what others may think or say and the social problems they can cause. In the “1961 Speech on the Student Movement” by Martin Luther King, the following text appears: “…in Montgomery for all of these years we have been such a peaceful community, we have had so much harmony in race relations and then you people have started this movement and boycott, and it has done so much to disturb race relations, and we just don't love the Negro like we used to love him, because you have destroyed the harmony and the peace that we once had in race relations…” This is a clear example of how, sometimes, you have to accept your situation and give up your desires in order to be accepted by your surrounding and lead a “peaceful” life.  As in the case of Martin Luther King, some people have the bravery to express what they think is right or wrong, even when they can bring negative consequences as result. He fought for his rights and always kept an authentic identity, knowing that a vast amount of people would be against him. This kind of mentality is what gives you the freedom to make choices according to your principles, values and thoughts.