Can environment or experiences play a huge role on having an affect on one’s perspective and identity in life? People’s environment or perhaps their experiences often have an impact on how they make their decisions in life. For example, characters such as Zane,Walter, and Esperanza, it changed their perspectives on life like changing the way how they act. As a result, their actions can also consequently impact their identities such as their character traits.
A character whose experiences and environment affected his perspective and identity in life is Zane from “On a Pale Horse” by Piers Anthony. Zane shows how his experience affected him is when in the story, he experiences what it is like to be cheated out of the opportunity …show more content…
Esperanza’s environment was able to affect her perspective and identity when she comments how “They are the only ones who understand me. I am the only one who understands them. Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine. Four who do not belong here but are here.” (Cisneros 73-74) This quote tells readers that Esperanza feels like she doesn’t belong on Mango Street, but there she is and she also feels like she is “trapped”. This affected her perspective on life because it Esperanza gave a negative outlook on Mango Street, despising it. This also was able to affect her identity because it made her into a woman with endurance since she has to deal with her unpleasant situation of living on Mango Street. Esperanza’s experiences were able to shape her perspective and identity in life when Esperanza comments about her name, “In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.” Esperanza is revealing to the audience that she dislikes her name because of how many people either pronounce it wrong, or make fun of her name’s many different connotations. This affects her perspective on life because it gives her a negative view on her culture from which her name originates from. This experience also affected her identity because it made Esperanza criticize herself harshly and being ungrateful for her name that it drove her to the point where she could wish she was able to baptize herself under a new