Identity Essay

Babayans, Christopher

Identity

English 115

30, November, 2011

Identity

The Glass Castle was a well written story about a woman who grew up to become a writer at a major publishing company in New York and, everything that happened in between starting from birth. In her memoirs published in “Convergences”, Judith Ortiz Cofer presents two short passages, one titled “Silent Dancing” and the other “Lessons of the Past” both  of which provide insight into her past. The similarity shared between the story of Cofer and Jeanette Walls, is that they present their past, and we , the reader can make visible dissertations about how those events shaped their present self.

In Silent Dancing, Judith Cofer, presents many memories that shaped her to be who she is today. She begins with a scene where her father is portrayed as a Navy man who received stable, steady and adequate money but was home less often than he was not. The paychecks that he brings have purchased his family a room in El Building, which was the name of the apartment complex they resided in. The building had many luxuries including running water, electricity, and enough rooms for everyone to sleep. Having said herself, Judith Coffer, states that their greatest luxury in El Building was having a television set. Being born in a single family house in Puerto Rico shaped her reaction to American life clearly, for if she had been born in America, she would probably have had a Television set growing up, and all the luxuries which Americans consider standard. In her identity, is now the notion, that she lived a privileged childhood.

In Coffer’s memoir, Lessons of The Past, she presents many memories. One of which are included in the bunch is her father coming home boring silk pajama gifts and iron cribs,  people filling their house to welcome him. But then things changed and her father stopped coming home. Coffer was able to hear her mother cry from the kitchen, and she was stuck waiting alone learning to count in Spanish for her father to come home. What Coffer learned from the event in her past is very clear for she even stated herself. “who liked his girls smart, who didn’t like cry babies – with a new lesson, learned well.” Characteristics that identify her were shaped here. The characteristics that her father did not like were those of a weak minded person (hence the term cry baby), and smarts. Knowing the characteristics that her father strove to suppress and strengthen, she consciously applied herself to achieve these characteristics’ of identity.

Cofer presents many memories from her time living in El Building and one of them is her memory of the heater pipes which ran vertically through all the rooms in the complex. She remembers playing with them trying to play tunes and seeing if others will respond to her but she was greeted by a spanking shortly after. Having been spanked has given her a reminder and instinctual urge not to play tunes on the water heater. The memory formed to give her identity the aspect of not wanting to play tunes on that water heater or maybe even a broader range of water heaters.

The Glass Castle has many instances where single events shaped occurrences in the future as well as the cognitive process delivering the identity to the main character, including having a father tied by alcoholism as a chronic event. In one scene Jeanette visits her uncle to take a shower at his house and is touched inappropriately. Jeanette told her mother what happened with hesitation. Her mother felt sympathy for Jeanette’s uncle saying that he is a deprived and lonely man, but she also taught her daughter to accept the past, be strong about it, and continue on with your life. Jeanette also took it upon herself not to visit her Uncle without special circumstances present. The events all linked to this one event had many results. The first is the immediate response to being touched sexually by her uncle. She categorized instantaneously that her uncle is a pervert, which can lead to a broader assumption that all Uncles, or even men in general, are out to get her. Following that her mother further shaped her identity by adding the characteristic of being able to move on from the past in a strong manner. The third identity shaping reaction possible from this event could be a hatred toward her mother. Having sided with the offender and Jeanette being the offended, she could possibly see her mother in a less then fully illuminated light for the rest of her life because her mother paired with the offender.

The Glass Castle also had a touch to The Walls’ childhood that I could not imagine. Having been born and raised in the San Fernando Valley and living here all my life leaving only to travel, I can not comprehend how difficult it was for the Walls children to have moved so many times. Countless times did they move from town to town in their beat up car to escape bill collectors and the like. Having an alcoholic father that could not keep a job to pay the bills often led to acquiring things for his family through methods left unknown.

From each book is presented separate instances where lives of young women have been shaped by events in the past. Cofer has had her identity shaped by events in the past and she only presents a few to us. The first was the spoils that her father was able to purchase with his Navy check. The money went above and beyond anything they had in Puerto Rico and even above and beyond those in El Buidling for they were very fortunate to have a television set. From her move in at El Building, she could identify herself to have had a luxurious past.  Another aspect of her past attributing to her identity was her fathers favoring of strong characteristics. He did not like cry babies, and like smart girls. Cofer picked up on the traits her father wanted her to pick up on, and I fear if her father would have been someone else she could possibly not have picked up on those traits. So because her father played a role in her life and not another, her identity can be identified as a smart, non-crybaby.

From Cofer’s Silent Dancing memoir, she presents a scene where she is spanked for playing on the water heater. Psychologically, this presents a negative conditioning associated with playing tunes on water heaters. Theoretically, she should never want to play tunes on a water heater, and that characteristic is now a part of her identity. ­

In The Glass Castle Jeanette Walls went through a severe amount of harshities in her childhood that nobody, child or not, should have to withstand. Her father was a hot headed alcoholic who routinely got out of hand. Her life constantly moved from town to town, various times throughout the story because her father would get into trouble with the locals. She was molested by her uncle, and her mother took her uncles side, but also taught Jeanette a great lesson.

One being shaped by the past and how one perceives and responds to the events is the philosophy I will live and die by. When a person sees an ice cream truck for the first time and the moment they walk up to it they get flames shot at them, they are going to remember, that in the future, ice cream trucks shoot flames out the window, regardless of if the statement holds true for a lengthy period of time, the statement will be held true for a period immediately after the initial incident. Myself having remembering an incident where driving fast seemed fun, has had my identity take it upon itself to drive rather quickly in the permissible times.

Works Cited

 Cofer, Judith O. "Lessons of the Past." Convergences. 3rd ed. New York/Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. Print.

 Cofer, Judith O. "Silent Dancing" Convergences. 3rd ed. New York/Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. Print.

 Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle: a Memoir. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print.