Song

Barlow, Becka. "Five Minutes of Fame." Another Journal Entry. By Barlow Girls. Online music. Otto Price, 2005.

It was a common story, yeah who cares that I changed?
Why are people freaking out?
Maybe I gave in more than I should, maybe I sold out
But the truth was I was really getting nowhere until I woke up and found
That morals can't take you up to the top your standards pull you down
[Chorus:]
Was it worth it what I gave away
For five minutes of fame
Minutes over no one knows my name
Or my minute of fame
I always said the thing that meant the most to me was my very integrity
Who would have thought I'd ever trade it all for popularity
'Cause the truth is though I've made it to the top I'm anything but satisfied
I gave up the only thing that mattered for this empty life
This time I'm saying no
This world will know what I believe in
I've lost enough to know
That life's too short to waste it

      This song deals with peer pressure and giving in to gain friends and popularity, and finding out in the end that it is not worth it. The song asks questions if changing yourself is worth it to please people. At the end of the song, this person feels confident enough to be themselves. This song deals with having a dual identity. There is a self that lies to everyone, and there is the true self.

 

Poem

My Identity

 

Cong, Yisel. "My Identity." Poemhunter.com. 2007. 1 May 2009 .

 

“My Identity” by Yisel Chong

 

So lost deep inside, 
Is all that makes me.
My true identity, 
Is hard to see.
To my friends and family, 
I’m a different me.
I have a secret identity, 
Wonder if you’ll ever see.
My thoughts and actions, 
Are all that makes me, 
But some things I may do, 
May not describe me.
Now look inside me, 
If you ever feel, 
like it, 
I’m no-one but me, 
Never hiding my identity.
Don’t say I am hypocrisy, 
Because I never showed you, 
two of me.
Now please, 
Look at me, 
Try to see the real me.
I’m no-one but, 
my real identity.
All full of beauty, 
Inside me.

 

This complicated poem is about someone with a struggle of a true identity and a false identity. The first half of the poem it talks about the “lost” part of him is his true identity that “is hard to see.” He does not let people see his true identity because it is a secret. The other half of the poem then contradicts the second half by saying he never hides his identity, and that he is “no-none but my real identity.” This is probably the secret part of him that is lying about being true. Maybe it describes how people say they are someone they are not. 

Movie

Gattaca

Gattaca. Dir. Andrew Niccol. Perf. Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. Columbia Pictures, 1997.

            Gattaca deals with the theme of lying to people about his true self and eventually feels some guilt. This film tells the story of Vincent, who has always dreamed to work for the space program, Gattaca. Vincent knows the struggles that await him in pursuing this goal because when he was born, doctors predicted that he will die at age thirty due to heart failure. Throughout his life, he faces genocism, which is like racism, but it illegally discriminates against people’s genes. This makes Vincent feel inferior, so he decides to take another man’s identity named Jerome to fit into society. The actual Jerome is part of the superior race although he is disabled. As Vincent lives through this dual identity, he feels guilty for lying to Irene, the woman he loves, by not telling her that his real name is Vincent and that he has inferior genes.  In the end, Vincent continues to be Jerome and accomplishes his dream to work for Gattaca.    

Novel

Joy Luck Club

Tan, Amy. Joy Luck CLub. 1st ed. New York City: Ballantine Books, 1990.

                      The novel tells the story of four American born daughters born to immigrant mother from China. The American daughters are Jing-Mei, Waverly, Rose and Lena. Each daughter goes through an identity crisis with their Chinese heritage. They feel embarrassed of their culture because they are embarrassed of theirs mothers and their fractured English. One of the daughters, Lena is half White and Chinese. As a child, she would walk around the house with her eyes opened wide, so that she could look less Chinese. In addition, the main character and daughter, Jing Mei Woo as a child, would deny that she is of Chinese ancestry, which is also denying her mother. Eventually, Jing-mei feels guilty that she ever felt ashamed of her culture and mother after her mother dies. She wants to be a good daughter to her, and decides to visit to feel connected with her origins. She also goes to China to complete her mother’s lifetime mission to see her daughters she abandoned in WWWII. In China, Jing-mei Woo meets her half sisters. She feels complete and accepts her culture at the end of the novel.

Artwork

Yoong, Sabrina. "Everyday Racism and my Hybrid Identity." Deal.org. May 2006. 4 May 2009 .

This artwork depicts a portrait of an unidentifiable face. The face contains separate squares with facial parts in them such as the nose and mouth. Each square represents a different ethnic group. These squares are in multiple layers with white or grey backgrounds. All of these squares try to create one face, but they do not fit in together. They struggle to do this like how people struggle trying to assimilate to a different group. It ties with the idea of wanting a new identity, explaining the multiple layers of squares hiding the true face beneath. The face beneath is trying to take a new self. Viewers cannot tell the age, gender, and race of the face beneath.

Lastly, the division of the square seems like they are categories of races, and categorizing is something people like to do. This person has taken on a number of identities that they lost their own.