Mariia Gonchariuk
English 1100
09/02/2015
Prof. Young

What Identity Means to Me

     Personally, I believe that identity is one of the most valuable things that a person can have. There 

are many factors that shape our identities. Things such as personality, background, language, 

 religion, gender, ect. Identity is how you and others perceive yourself. Same as Anzaldua, language 

and background is very important to me. Being myself a foreign, my language is very dear to me. 

But also, what is very important to me, is the treatment of others, which I believe is a big part of 

shaping the true identity.

     "So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language."- Gloria Anzaldua. She is right. 

Nothing hurts more than being told that the language that you were born to learn and loved almost all

 your life is now pointless and should be forgotten. My language shapes my identity because it is 

something that has an extreme value to me and shows true colors of my identity.

       My background,  Ukraine, is what made me the person I am today. Valuing my background each 

and every day because it gave me many opportunities and lifetime experiences.   

      Anzaldua did not mention anything about treating others in her passage but I feel like it is 

extremely important. It shows the true identity of a person to others. 

      Identity is not only your view on yourself but other people view on you. The way you talk, 

the way you rep your homeland and the way you treat others make people have good or bad 

impressions of you. Identity is something we can shape with our knowledge and our acts. And I take 

pride in my identity.

Works Cited

Anzaldua,Gloria. "How to Tame a Wild Tongue." Teaching Developmental Writing. Ed. Susan Naomi Berstain. Fourth ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. 245-255. Print.