Expository – Unpolished Gem

Expository Essay Prompt: The power of the group is often the cause of losing our individual identity “Our identities have no bodies, so, unlike you, we cannot obtain order by physical coercion. We believe that from ethics, enlightened self-interest, and the commonweal, our governance will emerge. ” – A quote from John Perry Barlow. This quote describes how our identity will emerge through the different ethic influences as well as our self – interests. Personal identity is about knowing who you are and what you are the eyes of others. Every different person is different in their own persona.
We all come from different families and cultures as well as social groups who influence the way our individual identity is sculpted. Being part of a group can change and/or influence our identity as well as the choices we make. This is commonly known as peer pressure. During adolescence we experience an insurmountable number of changes to our social well-being including the way we interact with others and what peer groups we associate ourselves with. Throughout this time we learn from many mistakes that usually evolve around our social life including what actions we undertake as a part of our peer group.
As depicted in today’s society, a large amount of these groups have negative effects on the individuals that are part of these groups and are therefore judged by society not knowing the individual identity of the people in that group. This is the time where identity is discovered and maintained throughout our maturity into adulthood. Individuality is something all people naturally have that develops into an identity. The definition of “identity” is the collective aspect of the set of characteristics by which a thing is definitively recognizable or known.

Throughout the course of life, people encounter many obstacles that they must overcome and conquer in order to complete the process of learning. Your reputation is determined by the actions that you complete as a result of an association with certain social groups. That reputation translated to a key part of discovering your individual identity. Family groups can complete change the way you express yourself and showing your identity. Every family is different and expect many different characteristics in your identity which include appearance, personality and beliefs.
A person can have two separate identities, one they use for family groups and culture and the other for their social groups. How you interact with people from your family group can sometimes interfere and change the way we interact with our social groups making it a negative and positive effect. The cultures in which we live in also alter how we express ourselves and interact with others. Many people with the same cultural background usually form their own group together and sometimes dislike or do not accept other groups because of their cultural backgrounds.
In conclusion, the power of groups can completely alter a person’s individual identity through Social group influences and family/cultural influences. The different influences can alter decisions you make as well as the way you act around certain people of society. All around the world people make assumptions and conclusions on a person’s identity through the different groups they are associated with. These different assumptions lead to the world problems of racism, religious wars and also in some aspects war itself.
This alone displays the power of the group identity can have over a development of an individual’s sense of identity. Reflective response This essay was basically a replication of how my individuality was/is determined and developed throughout my life. I included the many different influences that had a heavy effect on my personal identity which included the most powerful influence of a group. Being part of a group pretty much disintegrated my identity unless I was identified on my own with people from another group.
The audience is basically anyone who wants to learn more about how their Individual identity may be developed without knowing when or in what way it had developed. Many adolescences can relate to these influences as they are my fellow peers who are experiences many of these things that shape who we are and aren’t. However it was quite a challenge to try include these influences and explain them so many people who be the audience of this will have to have some sort of understanding about identity in general so that they can relate to the purpose and context of the text.