Critically reading Ann Raimes introduction

Discovering our identity is something everyone goes through to different extents, as Ann Raimes wrote. It is often easy to forget that an identity is not just how others or we see ourselves, but what we actually are. Throughout time, revered persons of societies and philosophers have made extraordinary claims to explain what we didn’t know, such as the presence of a soul, or that we are tools for a greater purpose. Even today, many people settle for those claims, or will look no further than their societal roles as identities.


‘We are what we do’ is a simple idea – we react to incentives, act hopefully with expectations, and generally live economically and conditionally. As used as an example in the critical reading excerpt, people have the ego, id, and superego; the fact that we have multiple personalities and manipulate ourselves to fit our situation is not a new idea at all. As people we are encouraged since birth to believe that we are unique, priceless individuals with our own unique identity, in that we leave impressions on the path of time. Contemplating how many people have lived and melded in this continuous steaming collective consciousness, I have a hard time understanding if any of it is true. What value is there to the marks I’ve made on the world, next to the paths taken if I had never existed?


All things considered, it is undeniable that identities change with time: physically and mentally. A person can replace their limbs with prosthetic ones, have organ transplants, sever their brain, intoxicate themselves with chemicals and concoctions – this is the extent of how far one can go to change their physical identity and maintain life. One can go as far as asking if there is even a point to where we can associate one persons identity with their previous one. If we are replaceable, is identity merely just association and observation? Is an identity we create ourselves as real as one that can be observed naturally from the universe? What makes something real, anyway?


On critical reading: Aside from its usefulness in gaining new ideas and expanding one’s mind, reading critically continually reinforces what any reader would expect from texts, and in turn allows one to write more effectively. It’s not good to assume that people will read your papers and digest it the way the you indented them to. Writing effectively requires persuasion, stimulation, and keeping the readers attention.