What makes someone who he/she is lies in that person’s identity. One’s identity is usually shaped by various things or experiences. A person’s identity is very important. Everyone’s identity is usually influenced by the many thing, or even the events in one’s life. A person’s country of origin, his/her family and friends or one’s possessions can form a person’s identity. The question of identity can be ambiguous considering the fact that there are so many aspects that could be considered in determining a person’s identity.
One’s identity can be determined from his/her values or world perceptions. ‘What We All long For,’ a novel by Dionne Brand, Leo’s essay entitled, ‘Is the Rectum a Grace,’ Duggan’s article, ‘The new homonomativity: The sexual politics of neo-liberalism and Manalansan’s article, ‘Violence and Neo-liberal Spatial Politics in the Global City are just some of the article’s that address the issue of identity. This essay will discuss these articles in relation to the issue of identity.
The city of Toronto is a vastly multicultural and diverse metropolis. It is occupied by citizens who have come from all walks of life, varying life experiences and different regions of the world.
Looking closely at Dionne Brand’s novel, What We All long For, the reader is introduced to the theme of building identity that has been self imposed and shaped by personal choices, eliminating external forces no matter what the consequences may be. This theme is threaded throughout the novel. The novel uses the concept of friendship as a platform to ground the many subjects that are prevalent within the novel such as: family, love, independence.
This essay will explore the ways in which the protagonists in the novel independently choose to construct their identities, no matter what the implications may be. The character’s that will be analyzed are Tuyen, Binh, Oku, and Carla. All four characters courageously go against external factors, leading to the construction and growth of their identities.
Tuyen is a second generation Vietnamese female. She is a struggling young lesbian artist. She holds two different cultures with her, both the Vietnamese and Canadian background. However, from the very beginning of the novel, it becomes apparent to the reader that her rebellious character chooses to shut out her Vietnamese culture from a very young age.
Growing up, she spent most of her childhood in her family’s restaurant. She would throw tantrums, refusing to speak Vietnamese with the clients in the restaurant. She would express her frustration with them, advising them to speak English because it was not necessary to speak Vietnamese (Brand 21). Also, at the tender age of 5 she went through a phase of demanding to be called “Tracy” (Brand, 21). Although Tuyen belongs to 2 cultures, it is apparent that she decided from a very young age to shut out her Vietnamese roots.
At the restaurant she had to ‘switch off’ her Canadian identity to conform to her Vietnamese community, however she refused to juggle between both cultures. Tuyen decided to completely alienate herself from her Vietnamese heritage and solely take on her Canadian identity. Her family structure is traditionally based. Tuyen’s father Tuan and her mother Cam are highly respected by Tuyen’s two older sisters and brother. The family is highly conservative, respecting the wishes of their parents.
Tuyen refused to conform to these familial ideals and ended up moving out on her own: She had left the embrace of her family-truthfully, not embrace, her family did not embrace. They fed you, they clothed you, they fattened you, but they did not embrace. Yet they held you. With duty, with obligation, with honour, with an unspoken but viselike grip of emotional debt. Tuyen wanted no duty (Brand 61).
It is evident that Tuyen refused to follow a traditional family system, where she is expected to obey her parents’ wishes, and hence her not wanting any duty. Therefore, moving out of her home, she committed the ultimate betrayal, going against her parent’s wishes. Tuyen’s character is free spirited, following her impulses.
However, living in her parent’s house, she would not be able to do whatever she desired whenever she wanted, which lead to her moving out on her own. Do to Tuyen’s uneasy relationship with her Vietnamese culture and the demands it has, she could “not be them… Not be Vietnamese. It was nothing that they had taught her.
They were so definitely who they were. She felt outside of herself, outside of them” (Brand 69). Therefore, it is apparent that Tuyen’s personality clashes with her Vietnamese culture. She refuses to assimilate, causing her to become distanced from her family and ethnicity. Tuyen’s personality also appears to be highly unsympathetic towards her family’s triumphs. Her family arrived to Canada as immigrants.
The transition was highly difficulty for both her parents, Tuan and Cam. In Vietnam, Cam was a successful doctor and Tuan held the position of an engineer. In contrast, they found themselves in menial occupations in Canada, the imagined ‘promise’ land. Tuan helped ship and unload fruits and vegetables in China Town and Cam struggled to operate a small salon. It is apparent that Tuyen’s parents endured hard times financially.
However, after surpassing difficult times they were able to finally open up their own restaurant, proving that after difficult sacrifices, their economic story changed from “rags to riches”. Tuyen’s family recently moved to Richmond Hill. Instead of celebrating this accomplishment, Tuyen believes that her family’s lifestyle is highly superficial (Brand 55). “Tuyen disliked the house in Richmond Hill. It was artificial.
The whole development seemed highly contrived… Someone’s idea of luxury, which was really antiseptic, and for all its cars and spaciousness, it was nevertheless rootless and desolate” (Brand 55). Tuyen proves to be daring and courageous. Therefore, moving away from her family, she was able to create an identity that lay outside of the Vietnamese community. Likewise, Tuyen’s brother Binh manages to construct an identity for himself, without the pressure of his parents trying to mould him into his long lost brother.
On the outside, Binh appears to be the only son, spoiled by his parents. He has everything that he wants. He has successfully completed his business degree, he owns an electronic store, he drives the latest Beamer X5 vehicle etc. He is gracefully showered with all the successes that life can possibly grant you. However, Binh was:
In effect, two sons, the one lost and the one found. But it was a difficult task to stand in for a mythic tragic brother who, not having to do anything, never failed at anything. And who, not having a physical presence, could never be scrutinized for flaws and mistakes. That mythic brother grew in perfection, it seemed, as Binh felt himself struggle for adequacy (Brand, 122).
This illustrates Binh’s struggle of pleasing his parents. It is clear to see that within this tight equation the room for failure is very minimal. In Binh’s parent’s eyes, Binh mirrored his lost brother Quy, an innocent child ill-fated to be left behind in Vietnam.
Therefore, the burden was placed on Binh to excel in every aspect of his life hence his business degree, his store etc. Through finding his lost brother Quy, Binh was automatically freed to create an identity that allowed for him to chase his own wishes and desires, and also left room for mistakes and pitfalls. Unknown to his parents and even to him, Quy’s identity mirrors the opposite of what Binh’s personality is.
Therefore, Binh has no higher standard to reach. After finding Quy, he can live his life the way he wants to because he is now a separate entity different from Quy. He no longer needs to fill in void of his lost brother Quy. The protagonist Oku also determinately takes it onto himself to live his life the way he wants, creating an identity that makes him happy.
Oku’s background is Jamaican. He is twenty five years old and lives in the basement of his parents. He has dropped out of school, leaving many routes open in which his life can take. His father, Fitz constantly barrages him with negative words. Every morning Oku has breakfast with his father Fitz and his mother Claire. Fitz deliberately challenges Oku‘s patience.
He repetitively reminds Oku that he provides food for the household and because Oku is living under one roof as him, he must obey him. “His father was intolerable, couldn‘t hold an adult discussion. He always had to be certain and right about everything” (Brand 88). Eventually, Oku grew a fear of resembling Fitz. He “would find himself looking at his own image in a sudden glass window. He would see his father there in himself but with just that iota of doubt that made him himself and not Fitz” (Brand 88).
Oku wants to be the opposite of Fitz. As a result, once Oku conjures up the strength to finally “man up” to his father and also move out of the house, the reader sees his growth because he has broken away from being Fitz’s obedient son. He is finally able to have a confrontation with Fitz, showing that he deserves respect from his father. He no longer relies on his parents. Moving out of the basement and going into the real world, he has finally constructed an identity for himself as being independent and no longer Fitz’s little boy.
Lastly, this essay will examine ways in which the protagonist Carla builds her identity.
Carla struggles to live her own life because she has not made peace with the past. In essence, she has not learned to let go of the past which keeps her from moving forward.
Before her mother Angie committed suicide, she instructed Carla to take her younger brother Jamal into the living room and look after him. This affected her psychologically all these years. She felt that she owned Angie the “loyalty” of taking care of her troubled brother Jamal.
It was only once she went to her father, Derek’s house, notifying him that Jamal is his responsibility and he has to get him out of jail that Carla’s identity begins to shape. She goes to a café and makes a toast: To Angela Chiarelli, she said aloud, raising her coffee.
She made a new vow to remember Angie, not with the same frantic effort at preservation, at loyalty. She had held on as if she could lose loyalty. Now she knew she couldn’t. And she couldn’t hold the baby any more either (Brand 314). Carla finally learned to let go of belief that she would betray her mother Angie if she did not hold Jamal’s hand, and guide him. She learned to let go and she is now free to live without guilt.
This essay thoroughly examined Dionne Brand’s novel, What We All Long For. Looking closely at the protagonists Tuyen, Binh, Oku and Carla, it explored the ways in which all four characters bravely went against external factors to form identities which made them content. Their journey to get to this position was difficult. However they bravely broke against barriers reaching a similar objective. They successfully created their own identities.
In Leo’s essay entitled, ‘Is the Rectum a Grace,’ which is based on the queer theory, the writer focuses on how one is able to shatter one’s self. The writer looks at the connection that exists between sexuality, psychoanalysis as well as aesthetics. Bersani makes reference to the ideas of other great thinkers like Plato and Freud.
The writer suggests that the only way to understand human identity and relationships is by doing psychoanalysis. According to the writer, art connects the world hence the need for aesthetics. The article brings the issues of sexuality, culture as well as psychoanalysis to the limelight.
The writer addresses the issues of homosexuality, having multiple sexual partners and the tendency of people to perceive homosexuality and prostitution as perversions.
As in the article; ‘What we all long for,’ Tuyen, The young Vietnamese Lesbian is perceived as an outcast according to her Vietnamese culture no yet she finds it difficult to cope with all the preceipt of that culture as it has no provision for people like her who are instead perceived as outcasts. Bersani seems to be suggesting that the issue of sex needs to be redefined and not be criminalized or viewed in contempt.
Bersani advocates for rationality in the issues of sex and sexuality. He advocates for open-mindedness and not to look at issues from one point of view. The writer perceives the issue of homosexuality as the society’s failure as the society has not embraced the concept of redefining rationality and sociality.
This has made Bersani a reference point in the queer theory. He looks at the fact that society gives much attention to the heterosexuals even in the matters pertaining sex and HIV/AIDS while ignoring the most vulnerable who are homosexuals/lesbians.
Homosexuality is criminalized in most cases and in the event that a homosexual is infected with the HIV virus, it is perceived as a payment for the criminalized act. Prostitutes are perceived in the same bad light as well. They are perceived as dirty vessels responsible for the spread of the virus and are therefore discriminated against (Bersani 197-222).
According to Duggan, Lisa, in; ‘The new homonormativity: The sexual politics of neo-liberalism.’ Progress is being done towards ensuring that the gays and lesbians are accepted within society, although it is not without resistance. Gays and lesbians have been campaigning for equal rights by demanding that they be included in the civil society and that this be made legal. They have been fighting for equal chances to the matters that concern the national life.
It has always been thought that gays and lesbians are the main perpetrators of moral decadence and are a big threat to the moral as well as the political order. The gay rights activism seems to be paying off as the politicians have started to embrace the concept of people’s personal freedom and the need for people to live a different lifestyle provided it poses no danger to others. This has also been attributed to the fact that the media has also been used by these activists to make their case well known and understood.
Neo-liberalism seems to be taking ground and the gay and lesbian rights are slowly being embraced. Neoliberals argue that most of the traditional ideologies like communism, fascism and socialism have failed hence the need for embracing new, economic and social ideologies for the better. Neoliberals fight for the privatization of most service delivery institutions for greater efficiency and maximum profit. Neoliberals narrow the issue of democracy to material production and distribution.
They advocate for the government to protect the rights of private individuals rather than the public as this would only result to intrusion and coercion. The gay rights activists have been fighting the fact that they are discriminated against when it comes to issues like HIV/AIDS. The gay and lesbian activism seems to be currently supported by some of those in power.
With the accommodation of gays and lesbians, people who would otherwise live in pretense are able to live just as they are and not as armatures of the set cultures and traditions, with no discrimination. This is what Tuyen had always been longing for. She was longing to be identified as she is and not by her native culture that was very regulative yet irrelevant to her. (Duggan 173-194).
In Manalansan’s text; ‘Violence, and Neoliberal Spatial Politics in the Global City, the righter focuses on the discrimination due to race or cultural affiliations whereby people tend to stratify themselves according to color and hence settle in the same section of the city and this has led to the dreams and desires of many never to be achieved.
People are economically and politically marginalized on the basis of their race and hence pulling them down economically as well as in other areas. In the recent past new governance forms have been slowly incorporated in different cities a good example being the New York City which is a global city.
Government intervention has been limited in the running of these cities as new policies like neo-liberalism. The people’s welfare services are no longer safeguarded. There is increased privatization and there tends to be a creation of a free-for-all scenario in the economic market and the competition tends to be tighter. Boundaries and neighborhoods tend to be redrawn as well as the lives of people.
There tends to be unhealthy surveillance and violence against the communities of color. There is a violent remapping of people’s lives, bodies as well as the desires of the communities of color otherwise known as the queers of color in the New York City today. This is fuelled by the neoliberal practices.
The remapping is caused by the private business expansion, city and expansion, as well as the federal efforts in crime prevention and efforts improve “the quality of life,” as well as the homeland security in effort to prevent terror attacks like that of the September 11 terror attack.
The urban space seems to be changing at a constant rate; people want to be identified by their wealth and property as in Binh’s case whose pursuit of wealth and success defines him more than any other aspect of his identity. He pursues a business degree and owns a successful store as well (Manalansan 141-56).
In conclusion, the articles bring out the conflicts that emerge in society due to people’s stereotypes and narrow-mindedness. Everyone seems to have a longing for recognition and appreciation. The current society is entangled with different cultures that seem to be constantly colliding, mingling and intersecting. Society tends to create identity especially in the matters of gender through the formation of cultures which act as benchmarks.
There are human set standards which tend to govern how people should be, live or behave. Those who do not live or meet these expectations are usually looked down upon or discriminated against. This has created armature characters who try to live like other people in pretence. They therefore lack their own identity. There is a great need for people to be identified as they are and not necessarily by the group or majority identity. One’s identity is built and not forced.
Works Cited
Bersani, Leo. Is the Rectum a Grave? AIDS: Cultural Analysis/ Cultural Activism. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1987. Print.
Duggan, Lisa. The new homonormativity: The sexual politics of. Ed. Russ Castronovo and Dana Nelson. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002. Print.
Manalansan, Martin. Violence, and Neoliberal Spatial Politics. Social Text, 23 (2005): 141-56.