From Outside By Barbara Mellix: An Analysis

Who am I? This is the one of the most challenging questions to answer, especially in the world today. The 21st century is becoming known for its identity crises. Because of the need to find oneself, people have been going as far as changing their primary gender to something they feel better expresses themselves. We may be influenced by an outside source; however, we are fully capable of creating our own identities. Barbara Mellix portrays this identity crises when she talks of almost having two separate identities within her passage, “From Outside, in.” Mellix struggles with finding herself in a society where she as two separate but equal forms of communication, that is influenced by her surroundings. How does a person find oneself when …show more content…
Everyone belongs somewhere, they must find the place they feel most comfortable and where they can be themselves. Risech, being a gay Cuban-American, fought heavily with trying to fit and finding someplace to truly call home, he states, “I often feel like a billiard ball on the highly polarized pool table of U.S./Cuba/Cuban-American politics, ricocheting off the bumpers of the contending discourses but never quite landing comfortably in any of the ideological pockets.” (Risech 437). Constantly in search of somewhere to fit in can become overwhelming and draining. Moving from place to place to place and never feeling at home is not just physically exhausting but mentally exhausting and demoralizing. It brings on a sense of hopelessness. Makes a person think that maybe they will never find a home, maybe they will never fit in and find a place they feel welcome and secure. At one point a person must focus on their self instead of others. Once the person discovers who they are, then they can outsource and look for people similar to themselves. The search for oneself is a lot of work and fatiguing, Mellix explains this, “Now that I know that to seek knowledge, freedom, and autonomy means always to be in the concentrated process of becoming—always to be venturing into new territory, feeling one’s way at first, then getting one’s balance, negotiating, accommodating, discovering one’s self in ways that previously defined “others”—I sometimes get tired.” (Mellix 394). Exploring different things is a great way to explore and find oneself. Mellix talks about venturing into different places to find where a person belongs and how this can help a person find their true identity. She also states that a person can find their self in others, whether that is mimicking them or just adopting their traits and personality completely. This may