On a slight tangent from my previous post on Chu T’ien-Hsin, I want to define “identity”. I personally believe that identity is something that is raw and natural and uncontrolled; something that can explain your whole life in just a word.
Nelson Mandela: forgiving.
Paul Walker: humble.¹
Both of these figures have just recently passed away and the whole world has been talking non-stop about the type of people they were. Popular Mandela quotes (“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison“²) have resurfaced, being shared all over social media as Facebook statuses and Twitter tweets. People have been coming forward with stories of Paul Walker’s secret charity stories and deeds. Identity is a lifestyle that one innately leads, not something that can be constantly and consciously fixed or edited.
Based on what I’ve read in Man of La Mancha, if I could apply one word to identify the narrator, it would be: irritable. The speaker is highly obsessed with maintaining a certain impression on the public. His inner thoughts come off as annoying and fake.
Did Chu T’ien-Hsin write this character in this way because she, herself, did not know and could not understand a person with a “secure” (already fixed) identity? Maybe her personal struggle in understanding identity, place, and belonging hindered her from creating a fictional character who knew who he was, liked who he was, and showed others who he (really) was.
