I was thinking about personal identity today and a question sprung to mind, who am I? More specifically, which facet of my personality is truly me? Is it the quiet thoughtful part that is seen by acquaintances in class, the fun side seen by my friends, the reflective side seen by family, or the seclusive side that I go into when I'm by myself? All of these aspects make me Jor-El, but certainly some of the faces are masks that I put on for the public. If I gage this by which one is seen the most then I am the quiet thoughtful guy in class or the fun guy with my friends, If I judge by who I am naturally then it's the seclusive reflective guy that I become when nobody else is looking, but can that define me? From my point of view it seems that my personality must be judged by the people around me so being alone would not be the true me, would it? I guess that once again this can be summed up by comic books, is Clark Kent putting on a blue and red costume to become the man of steel or is Superman putting on a mask of glasses to become a mild mannered reporter? From where I stand there has to be one true identity and then several masks we wear, which face is the truth and which is the mask in our lives?
posted by Jor-El at 6:56 PM
3 Comments:
must people only show the people around them the side of them they want to see, is this wrong i think not for everyone has masks but is it wrong to wear then, i think that most people are afraid to let other see who they really are i also think that there are people out there that were so big of maskes that they for get who they really are and this bothers me we should not have to wear are maskes all the time we should be free to be are slevs no matter what others think
As an actor I struggle with this concept of "Who Am I" a lot. I believe we are defined by our surroundings. These surroundings cause us to wear masks, and these masks we wear are part of who we are. The masks (not just the mask of a situation) are what give us personality. I think masks become a problem when they're different in similar situations. Without masks I think we would all be to similar. We'd all be silent introverts.
I agree with Brady, I don't think we have just a single aspect of our own personality. The situations we are in dictate the way we act, and most of the time we are not putting on masks on purpose. These many situations dont usually mean that we are acting fake, they just mean that it is a different side of our personality showing up. However, one must be careful because putting on different masks can be harmful in some situations. I guess I always thaught of putting on masks as an intentional deception, while acting different in different situations is just our personality adjusting to our surroundings.
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