Identity Is Fluid Essay

Identity is fluid. Our thoughts, experiences, and feelings are subconsciously pooled together in a homogenous, perpetually altered structure. This glob of thoughts, feelings, and emotions is simultaneously molded by pressures that prolongs throughout life. Despite the momentousness that thoughts, experiences, and feelings influence on the development of identity, they are not the only thing that influences the development of identity. But, equally imperative to the convoluted development of identity is the response to these pressures. Responses create a cascading domino effect in which reactions to outside stimuli appreciably affect how one is perceived; this reaction-perception complex is the base on which all identity is forged, and both ameliorate and …show more content…
One prime example of the detrimental effects of prior experience on the development of identity is the dismal life of Perry Smith. Smith, while incarcerated in prison for the horrendous murders of the Clutter family, recounts his brutal treatment at the cold, callous hands of the catholic nuns who “whipped him for wetting his bed” (Capote 93). This experience along with many others lead to the development of Smith’s disclination to religion and the development of an external locus of control (Capote 93). His damaged psyche and ego likely further deteriorated due to his mother’s alcoholism and the nomadic lifestyle of his father. These factors paved the way for the development of his extreme “mental illness” and “paranoid schizophrenic reaction” leading to the eventual murder of the Clutter family due to his fractured identity having “severe lapses in ego-control” and expressing “primitive violence” drawn from his traumatic childhood experiences (Capote 298). Smith’s tragic tale of trauma and homicide highlights the effects prior experience has on the development of psyche and by extension the development of