While I was reading through the essential questions, I kept asking myself what essential question would allow for the best, quality blog post. Honestly, I wish I had more questions to choose from but question number 3 was my favorite.

HOW DOES YOUR CULTURE HELP OR HINDER THE CREATION OF ONE’S IDENTITY?

We all know that culture can either help or hinder you identity creation but, why does it have to be either/or? Can it be both?

In my opinion, Bigger Thomas is the perfect example of how someone’s culture can help the creation of their identity but hinder the creation at the same time. As I read Native Son by Richard Wright, it seemed to me that Bigger had already made an identity for himself. Then I realized. Bigger had been living with an identity he did not create for himself, but an identity that the society around him had created FOR him. He was perceived a just this 20 year old, poor black man, that could barely afford his rent and a delinquent that goes around robbing stores with his friends. He was not perceived as a regular human being. He was perceived as an animal or a thing, even.

Native Son explored the effects of discrimination and racism on a black man within the society and you could tell that because of this, Bigger was trying to break free of the stereotypes. He was always longing for more. He was struggling to find his true identity because his culture/society had basically done everything they could to keep him from finding who he truly was. His society murdered the identity he could have developed. If someone called you an ape everyday because you were black or they thought you were uneducated because you were black, wouldn’t you grow up believing it because that is what you were so used to hearing your society say about you? Bigger grew up with preconceived notions about who he was supposed to be which hindered the creation of his own identity.

In most novels I have read, the protagonist finds their identity and it usually helps their life in a positive way. Bigger Thomas, however, took me by surprise because the person he turned into was completely unexpected. Now, don’t get me wrong, but in a way, the fact that Bigger murdered two people really helped him figure out the type of person he was and it ultimately helped him find his true identity. We can blame his culture and society for turning him into a homicidal murder machine, but we can give his society some credit too.

After murdering Mary and Bessie, he finally realized that he is a black man that is capable of doing anything. Even though he got caught in the end, he was able to hide the murders long enough without people even suspecting that he could have killed the two women. Bigger saw that he was smarter than his society perceived him to be and that he was capable of doing things just like white people could. Maybe murdering people is not the best example to use to describe how someone’s culture could help them find their identity but you get the gist.

Side note: I just want to say I really enjoyed this book. I honestly thought at the beginning that I was going to hate this book one, because it looked really long, and two, because it didn’t even look interesting. Apparently, I was wrong and I think I am going to add this to my list of favorite books! I really hope we can read more books like this!

TKAM IS HONESTLY JUST GREAT

When I hear the words “a work of literary merit,” I normally think that means if my book is a good book. But, I feel like there is a lot more meaning to those words. I feel like literary merit means that a book is so well written and popular that when writers are writing or English teachers are teaching courses, they must always go back to this book a reference something from it, whether it be specific passage or a literary device. The book has to provide some type of significance importance in the literary world in order for it to be considered “a work of literary merit.” I personally think that To Kill A Mockingbird is a work of literary merit because it has been referenced or mentioned so many times that I can’t even count. There are so many passages in the book that have significance not only to the book, but to the outside world as well. For example, the title itself connects to the real world by saying it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. I love the message behind this because it explains that you cannot kill innocent people because all they have done is good for the community around them. While reading TKAM, many life lessons have been explained throughout the book and I felt like it was an entertainment book as much as it was a life lesson book. 

About ettenel moon

Let me start off by introducing myself. Hi! I am ettenel moon. Notice how I did not capitalize my name. Want to know why? Well I won’t tell you why because that will ruin the mystery of who I really am, and I like being mysterious.

Honestly, from the first grade to maybe sixth or seventh grade, I can confidently say I was obsessed with reading. Every time there was a book fair, I was so excited to get a free book and I even loved those scholastic book catalogs even when no one else seemed to be interested in them. As a kid, I never had anything to do in my house. We had basic cable so watching TV was out of the question and my family did not get a real computer with internet until the sixth grade so surfing the internet for hours was out of the question too. Books were the only things that would keep me busy from the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep.

Now though, I would not say I am the best reader. I never pick up a book unless I have to read it for school. I feel like I am always reading for a grade and never for actual pleasure and it just gets boring to me. Hopefully, this blog will make me enjoy reading again because I actually do want to get back into reading. I felt like I was Einstein when I reading books that no one else was reading. But to close out, I hope all you book readers and bloggers enjoy my precious little blog and I really hope you all read the books that I am going to talk about!

-          ettenel moon