At its core, the concept of “identity” is one that humanity has always struggled with despite its apparent simplicity. According to its literal denotation of “what something is,” the understanding of this idea in real life is much more substantial. Many separate identities can exist in a community, and these all influence each other in unique ways. Identity can take many forms, and can be conflicted, hidden, sheltered, expressed, developed, and discovered throughout the course of a lifetime. As a result of their separate and extremely different experiences, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” and Richard Rodriguez’s “The Achievement of Desire” confront the idea of identity and attempt to understand it.
These two pieces commonly express that identity is a completeness of the self and a way to balance the conflicting ideas that confuse people in times of conflict. Conflicting ideas not only challenge each other, but also the personal integrity of the person that is deciphering them. It is difficult for someone to figure out who they are and what they stand for if they are caught between two ideas that could define this identity. For instance, Adichie explores this idea by saying that by not reading Nigerian books as a child, “the unintended consequence was that I did not know that people like me could exist in literature. So what the discovery of African writers did for me was this: It saved me from having a single story of what books are” (Adichie). Even though Adichie continues to explain the clear argument that “single stories” help perpetuate stereotypes and prevent people from bonding with each other, it more importantly defines what Adichie thinks is important to preserve from an identity in the first place. Identities are accurate experiences and stories that, if theoretically combined, would create a universal “truth” about a person or group of people. Even though two people could have the same backgrounds or opinions, stories are the emotional ties that connect people and create their identity.
To understand this, it is important to define “truth” and its importance to both Adichie and Rodriguez. Truth is, literally, “that which is in accordance of reality” (“truth”). At first, reality might seem like a simple goal, and Adichie and Rodriguez both believe that through their struggles through education and the “single story,” they have achieved a new understanding of this issue and have identified their place in the world (Adichie). They are able to identify the intense power of separation that misunderstanding and cultural difference can create. Adichie explains the harm of the “single story” by explaining that “All of these stories make me who I am, but to insist on only these negative stories is to flatten my experience and to overlook the many other stories that formed me” (Adichie). And yet, the negative stories that Adichie urges us to eliminate from our minds can also form a larger piece of the truth, as long as they do not overshadow the positive stories. Even though it is important to not dehumanize a group of people by isolating their negative stories, it is also important to not dehumanize them by isolating their positive stories. “Single stories,” even though Adichie does not delve into this idea, can also be positive stories, which cause an equally “flattening” effect on a person or group (Adichie). In an effort to be accepted by an audience, this sentiment is sometimes forgotten, but it is important to remember in order to achieve true reality.
They are also eager to assure that they have fully achieved the truth through this process of learning. Whether it is a learning process through public schooling or real-life experiences, Adichie and Rodriguez are both correct in the value of these experiences, but also fail to recognize that this is a neverending process. It is never possible to completely dismantle a first impression of someone, but it is possible to realize that this is not the complete picture through real-life experiences and education. Even if some people do not have access to education and are not willing to accept it, experiencing the real world is not a choice. Those who do have access to education must be willing to accept new ideas in order to understand them. Otherwise, they will never see the whole truth.
Richard Rodriguez’s “The Achievement of Desire” expands on this definition in his educational struggles throughout his childhood. Rodriguez’s chaotic home life and structural school life are at odds with each other culturally throughout the essay. When faced with this conflict as a child, “I tightened my grip on pencils and books. I evaded nostalgia” in order to become like his teachers (Rodriguez 342). Even though it is unusual to think that nostalgia is something that he felt all his life, this is possible because he was always seeing his home life as something of the past. It belonged to the previous generation, but not to him. His fault was not in embracing education in the first place, but rather trying to escape the complete truth of his situation. After embracing both the “nostalgia” and the “pencils and books” Rodriguez says that after returning home, he achieved “the end of education” and learned how to become “unafraid to desire the past” (Rodriguez 342-355). Education gave him the tools to articulate the thoughts he had about his parents but also distracted him from these conclusions for much of his life. Even though it is important to realize that he was able to overcome his reluctance towards his family, there is no reason why this balance cannot be applied to the rest of his life beyond this. It would have been effective to expand on how this realization shaped his view on education as a whole, or if he has assisted any other “scholarship boys” on their paths towards balance, since education is essentially a collaborative process.
Essentially, completeness in identity, cannot be achieved without realizing the truth, because identity is a product of reality. Even though Adichie and Rodriguez offer insight on how this truth helps uncover identity, they also imply that this is a process that can be completed by the end of a person’s life. However, the nature of identity implies that it continually changes and that striving for completion is missing the point. It is crucial to express the process of learning a new story, but this process is not necessarily confined to a single moment. The willingness to develop an identity, but not necessarily perfect it, encapsulates the human spirit. Even though Adichie and Rodriguez’s works portray the importance of truth, it would be more effective if they did not strive for a “paradise” where learning is complete, because this arguably does not exist (Adichie). Accurate stories, whether they are “good” or “bad,” must be chosen to be heard by a listener so that they become closer to the truth. It is easy to congratulate oneself on new understanding, but understanding is a result of real-life experiences that should not be accepted at face value. The audience that Adichie is speaking to, and the learned readers of Rodriguez’s essay might not accept that learning is not something that is completed. Instead, it acts as a force that continually shapes the identity. People are always striving to grow and change, but to arrive at an “end of education” is something unrealistic, for it is impossible to embody every truth at once.