The Search to Discover Who We Are Is One of Life’s Greatest Challenges. free essay sample

The search to discover who we are is one of life’s greatest challenges. William James has stated, there are three types of selves exist in order to form one’s identity. The material self, which is simply the physical appearance of that person. The social self, how the person looks like in other’s view. The spiritual self, which only the person himself can know. These variety parts of our identities, some we know well, others we’re yet to uncover. Therefore people begin searching. Here come the challenges that we must undertake in order to gain a sense of self. The sacrifices of identity in order to join into a group, disappointment to other’s misunderstand and loneliness. Stories from Alice Pung’s ‘Growing Up Asian in Australia’ and poems by Bruce Dawe have introduced the anecdotes of many people’s lives experiences to prove that how the journey of finding identity is tough. Blend into a group to find out who we are is a challenge for some people if they are carrying too different identities from others. Through the process of belonging, it is not only the way people seek for love but also a way people find out the more hidden part in their identities. When we fit in, we see ourselves reflected in others. The way we cost of fit in will be huge if two’s identities are not in common. A migrant and an Australia born Vietnamese. Theses two women who carry the most different identities live together as a family. Diana, the protagonist from the story ‘Five ways to disappoint your Vietnamese mother’ who identify herself with the environment of Australia. Her payment for fit in the environment that she feels belong is to sacrifice her family with different ways to disappoint her mother’s wills, who is the only family member Diana left in this world. The same payment reveals in Snake’s decision to give up his sister and father’s lives to belong to the gang. His extremely different identity to the gang is been discovered by King ‘The others will tell you you’re in the gang but you and I know different. ’ Snake eventually fits in the group that he wishes to find out his identity from indeed, with the price of his family’s life. As our international students, by sacrificing the sweet and warmful home, we come Australia alone to search a deeper sense of self in our identities. It is a challenge, since our different values and identities from others who live here, occurs us hard to blend in and find out ourselves. There are many challenges in life such as the loneliness and oppression which we need to undertake in order to discover the identity of ourselves. The protagonist in the poem ‘The Family Man’ by Bruce Dawe. The family man seems like a person surrounds by happiness, but the real spirit inside his heart is full of loneliness. He ‘kept his own counsel’ by not sharing with anyone, and locked himself with loneliness and depression. The overdose of isolation lastly becomes the greatest challenge in his life, ends with a lonely way ‘lay dead in his own wood-shed’. Ironically he finds out his identity through the death which is a ‘proper end’ for him, a lonely man. The oppression of a person’s life becomes the activator of a person’s journey to find out her new self. Aditi, the main character of the story ‘Wei-Li and Me’. From the start of oppressing the anger till eventually the explored of her irritation, Aditi faces this transformation by herself and overcomes the challenge of bullying from her classmate Barry. By undertaken these challenges Aditi successfully develops herself with a brave part in her identity. The difficulties in our lives are many, by overcomes them we are able to find out our new perspective of selves. Sometimes one can not fully understand one another. There are many targets we set in our lives. By going through many different processes and overcomes many difficulties, people are able to win their own achievements. When people success, the satisfaction will cover the rest of the four needs in a person’s life as Maslow’s hierarchy has mentioned. One of the targets in our lives is to find out who we really are. To belong, people are willing to discover their identities through the common with others in the group. But more often, it is impossible to know another completely. In the story ‘Homo Suburbiens’ the man seems lonely by standing in his back garden alone. In fact, he is surrounding by peace, enjoying and belonged in his backyard. He is not lonely although he is alone. The misunderstanding of a person exists because we always judge people by how we think in our views. Sometime we are blind to see the truth. In the story ‘Up the wall ’ and ‘The family man’, both of the characters are surrounding by their children, they supposed to be happy as ‘kids make a home’. Paradoxically, kids do not. The housewife is not satisfy by her children, she supposed to be belonged, but the identity she carries and where she belongs doesn’t match, the frustration occurred. The housewife explores her isolation to her husband who should be the one understand her. But by showing his none-sympathetic behaviour, it proves that people are blind to see the authentic feeling of another’s. A person’s real self will never be understand by others no matter how close they are, although they are in the same family. The family man’s family are surprised by the death of his since they thought he would be happy about his life. It is impossible for a person to totally understand another. The difficulties in one’s life are many. The loneliness, oppression and sacrifice of selves. These challenges are revealed especially in one’s journey to discover his identity. Through the process of belonged, a person is able to find out who he really is, but it can be tough is one’s identity is totally different from others in the group. The failure of understanding others are also exists. All these experiences are covered in the stories by Alice Pung’s ‘Growing up Asian in Australia’ and Bruce Dawe’s poems, and they successfully prove that a person’s journey of discovering his identity has to undergo with many challenges which could be the greatest in his life.