issue113 第一次模考，random着吓自己

sneakerliuUID: 2481691

TOPIC: ISSUE113 - "It is primarily through our identification with social groups that we define ourselves."
WORDS: 608
TIME: 上午 12:45:00
DATE: 2009-2-5

Who am I? A most primary question one may ask to himself, which we seek the answers throughout the life. Babies often ask parents 'where am I from' and youngsters tend to find out the solutions of who they should be. The inquiry of identity confuses human beings from the moment we start to think to the time that our lives end. People find different identities from different groups they belong to. Moreover, we also define ourselves by ambitions and characters, both vary from one individual to another other than the social groups.

Above all, it is true that the mankinds are divided into different groups by themselves. Certain groups must share some similarities. The same culture, custom and even taste of art could be the trait of certain groups. For Chinese, it is the traditional culture and the belief such as Confucius accompany with his Confucian that tie people's mind and provide the sense of belonging rather than the nationalities. That is, even holding the passport of America, one also define himself as a Chinese, since he celebrate the Spring Festival, be familiar with the same history and most importantly share the same value system with those who living in China. In this regard, the traits of a certain social groups such as culture and value system help ones to define themselves via the acquiring the sense of identity.

Moreover, as for the young, when they are planning for their future life, the identification from their groups does not help them to maintain the definition of themselves. Actually, one may mis-define himself through the social groups he is having at a young age. Since we cannot choose where to be born, we cannot choose how the neighborhood could be. If one is living in a relative criminal neighborhood, he or she is highly possible to mis-define them as one of the criminals. In order to seize that sense of belonging and justify their definition is right, kids may steal bread even they do not need more food. The groups are not defining themselves but building themselves. Nonetheless, some do not believe they belong to this social group, and decide to make changes.

Thus, some people are defining themselves by their ambitions, which is isolated from any social groups but belong to only oneselves. Chen sheng, a young soldier in Qing Dynasty, express his ambition was to fight against then government. He was not understood by his peers since they believed he was having a daydream. However, this young man defined himself not through the social group but the ambitions and finally challenged the then kingship. In this regard, ambitions of ones’ future, which indicates where one would go, contributes to define oneselves.

Furthermore, others are defining themselves due to their personalities. With the belief of everyone is unique, modern humans do not emphasize the belonging sense to certain groups but themselves. Students may define themselves as future artists or scientists from their love to the specific field. Workers may define themselves as sophisticated or not due to their character of carefulness. People understand themselves from different aspects, not only similarities that bond them to groups, but the differences that divided one from another. Both the similarities and differences people uncover from comparing with others define people themselves.

In the modern age, with the increasing respect of individualities, people have more freedom to define themselves, through where one was from to what one is doing and to what one may achieve rather than any social groups through we still and primarily define ourselves into groups. People currently are defining themselves either by the characters or ambitions, or both.