People often let others help them shape their identity. They identify with habits, religions, political affiliations, and other loyalties of their parents or close friends. Often a person uses a state or a country in which they were born as a part of their identity. Stephen Dedalus, the main character of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, is a curious case in that he lets none of these things be innately part of his identity.

Stephen is very analytical in his dealings in life. He will not let any outside force define him in any way if he does not fully agree with it. He does not relate well to his family, he comes to almost hate the Catholic Church, and he does not even let his Irish nationality fully define him. Stephen isolates himself from everything from every part of his born identity.

Why does Stephen do this? Throughout the novel he seems to be searching for some definition of himself. He analyzes the definition of beauty and or art with school mates and professors, but truly he attempts to define his reasons for dissenting from the church and society. By the end of the novel, Stephen seems to have come to a bit of a realization about his identity , but I do not believe he has found the full definition he is searching for by the time the book ends with his departure from Ireland.

Joyce seems to suggest with his character, Stephen Dedalus, that one can form their own identity separate from birth loyalties and associations. However, he also seems to say that one who attempts to fully escape definitions such as Stephen does, often seems to be defined closely to those defining characteristics. i.e. Stephen does not like the Catholic Church, but is religious in many ways. So can one truly be defined by aspects not given to them at birth?

Toni Morrison's novel, Beloved, provides an interesting insight to the way one's past effects their identity. The novel focuses a woman named Sethe and her family. Sethe was enslaved prior to the events in the novel, however Morrison does tell the story of Sethe's escape within the novel. Sethe is constantly haunted by her past enslavement, throughout the novel she constantly re-lives her past either through story telling or sharing memories with Paul D, a slave of the same home as Sethe.

Sethe's fear of the becoming enslaved after she reaches freedom leads her to kill one of her baby daughters when her former master arrives at her home. The murdered child immediately begins to haunt the home in which Sethe lives. This constant haunting or reminder of the past forces Sethe to become a certain person. She is shunned from society, but she also shuns society. She isolates her and her living daughter for over 18 years. Then, once society in the form of Paul D attempts to enter their lives, Beloved appears in the form of a grown woman. Immediately Sethe becomes focused entirely on pleasing and caring for Beloved. She becomes defined by Beloved.

Sethe past deeds come to define her in society's eyes as well as her own. She cannot escape or accept her past. Once her past appears as a ghost, it becomes her soul focus. Nothing else seems to matter except Beloved. Soon Beloved begins to suck the life out of Sethe. It is as if Sethe entire identity is being transferred into Beloved, or Sethe's past.

Morrison seems to show that the past can have a powerful effect on a person's identity. It can cause society to form perceptions, individual selves to form perceptions, and can even come to embody a person's identity.