Personal Identity In Snow Crash

Hiro, our main protagonist, throughout the out the whole book spend almost all of his time inside of the metaverse. Often throughout Snow Crash Hiro talks about his true reality in a very negative sense. Just a few pages before Hiro is shown, for the first time, goggling into the metaverse, he is talking about how awful his life is, "But in the bleak light of full adulthood, which is to one 's early twenties as Sunday morning is to Saturday night, he can clearly see what it really amounts to: "He 's broke and unemployed. And a few short weeks ago, his tenure as a pizza deliverer -- the only pointless dead-end job he really enjoys -- came to an end."(Stephenson 20). The striking images, metaphor, and syntax that Stephenson uses develops Hiro …show more content…
Personal identity is not a constant, it is malleable, continually being altered by one 's own experiences. When looking at the concept of personal identity in the facet of mobility, it is coherent to assume that a person mobility can alter their personal identity. Elliott and Urry refer to this concept of mobility affecting identity," we witness portable personhood.Identity becomes not merely ‘bent ' towards novel forms of transportation and travel but fundamentally recast"(Elliott and Urry 3). Portable personhood one of the effects that mobility has on personal identity. This dynamic influence that mobility has on identity is reflected in Snow Crash. The ability to be mobile within the metaverse changes how the characters perceive their own identity. Through Hiro, Ng, and background characters we see the effect that this increased mobility has on …show more content…
The avatar that Hiro use in the metaverse is said to look just like him, "Hiro 's avatar just looks like Hiro, with the difference that no matter what Hiro is wearing, in Reality, his avatar always wears a black leather kimono"(Stephenson 33). Hiro does not change his appearance in the metaverse because his identity is based in the metaverse. As talked about previously Hiro considers the metaverse to be his true reality, so his true identity is based in the metaverse. The mobility that the metaverse gives him allows for Hiro to display what he believes is his true identity. The only difference between Hiro 's avatar and his real self is the black kimono. Hiro wants to identify closer with his Asian heritage. He is allotted this through his mobility in the metaverse. Shortly after meeting Y.T., Hiro hands her a card with his name and one the lines of state "Greatest swordfighter in the world". Later it is shown that Hiro is the number one sword fighter in the metaverse. Clearly, Hiro is a very good sword fighter in the real world but officially is the greatest in the metaverse. This is a display of Hiro using the metaverse as the reality that he wants to base his identity.Hiro uses the virtual mobility that he has to the metaverse to shift where he bases his personal identity. It allows him to be what he wants