The Identity Fingerprint

            Formed three months in the uterus, a person's fingerprint is similar to his or her identity. Human fingerprints are complex, but the issue of identity is also intricate. Identity consists of numerous defining characteristics that make up the whole of who a person is in any given moment. These fragments of self, include his or her gender, sexuality, and sense of belonging to a particular culture, nation, religion, family, or some other group. Identity includes looks, personality, beliefs, fears, a person's inner character, and outer aspects that makes him or her unique. Humans are all born into cultures, families and communities with certain values they naturally inherit. But in order to figure out who a person is, he or she has to revisit those inherited values, something that might have been passed to him or her for hundreds of years.
             As a CBC, Canada born Chinese, with a mix of Korean background, I never understood which group of people I belong to. Yet this is the identity that I am born into, I cannot change my family history, so I appreciated it gratefully. My name, my appearance, and the house that I live in, these are all determined by my parent, it's who they are that made me who I am. In order to understand my identity, I try to ask my elders about their life and understand what is behind our family history to have a better grasp of informations that will eventually led to myself learning who I really am. But this is not all, I am not the only example of family leading to who a person would become, another great example would be Perry Smith from Truman Capote's book, In Cold Blood. .
             As one of the two murderers of the Clutter family, Perry grew up under difficult circumstances. He was abandoned by his family and severely abused by nuns and other caregivers. He has a reoccurring dream about a large bird that saves him from bullies, abusers, and anyone who might cause him harm.