A personal understanding of one’s own identity begins to develop the moment we are born. Our identity is molded by our surroundings and the values that are present in our homes. Having an identity relates to the sense that we need to feel like we belong. Everyone in the world wants and almost needs to feel accepted and “at home” with a particular group. There are two short stories that express the major influences on how culture shapes one’s identity; Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Being Country,” and Margaret Mead’s “New Superstitions For Old.” The culture a person is surrounded by plays an influential role in the shaping of their identity.
In Mead’s “New Superstition For Old,” she explains that some groups in society believe in superstitions and some do not. However, no matter if you are a believer or a non-believer, how you view superstition affects you, the way you view yourself, and the way you process others. Mead goes on to explain that as children, we take the culture that we are used to and apply this knowledge to the world around us. As a child grows up in a specific culture, they consume these practices and beliefs and begin to apply them in everyday life activities. “Taking their first steps away from home, children use the old rituals and invent new ones to protect themselves against the strangeness of the world into which they are venturing” (Mead 168). As time continues go on, the culture that the person is constantly around and living in will develop their sense of identity and belonging
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In Mason’s short story “Being Country,” a similar pattern that is seen in Mead’s short story appears once again, how being in a culture at a young age gives you a sense of identity. In Mason’s story, she begins by explaining how her mother and grandmother had this sense of “southern” culture while she was growing up. While Mason did not necessarily agree with this culture, she insists that the southern culture inspired her to want to go and find the culture that she agreed with. “Granny didn’t question a women’s duties, but I did. I didn’t want to be hulling beans in a hot kitchen when I was fifty years old, I wanted to be somebody, maybe an airline stewardess” (Mason 149). If Mason had never been introduced to what her relatives knew to be the “right culture”, she would have never felt the need to seek to find who she really was and who she really identified with. Furthermore, the need to feel like she belongs.
In conclusion, our understanding of ourselves begins the moment we enter this diverse world. We base our identity on values and beliefs that are introduced to us at a young age. Whether we grow up to still use these same values or we grow into new values based on the old ones we did not like as a kid, the culture that we know or once knew, still shaped us into who we all are today. After all, it does seem good to feel at home.
Work Cited
- Mason, Bobbie. “Being Country.” Wake Tech English 111 Reader. Plymouth, Macmillan Learning Curriculum Solutions, 2017.
- Mead, Margaret. “New Superstitions For Old.” Wake Tech English 111 Reader. Plymouth, Macmillan Learning Curriculum Solutions, 2017.
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Critical Essay on ‘Being Country’ by Bobbie Ann Mason.
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