A really hard identity and belonging prompt

[monokekie]

My teacher said it is a very hard prompt and I had to agree with her.

"Sometimes a sense of identity is really stifled by the groups to which we belong."

Anyone has any idea about it?

[dejan91]

Start by rewording it in your own words, something like:

Belonging to a group means that at times we are unable to express who we truly are.

[methodsboy]

My teacher said it is a very hard prompt and I had to agree with her.

"Sometimes a sense of identity is really stifled by the groups to which we belong."

Anyone has any idea about it?

i think its an easy prompt....write about how belonging can alter one's identity
-group pressure etc.
and think about issues in real life in which they occur. For example; at skewl with ur friends etc.

[monokekie]

i am ESLESLESL......
+ i am dumb

lol

and ty for your advise 

[Toothpaste]

Groups
- conforming to set "laws" of that certain group (could be social groups, family groups [rules of some traditions/cultures], etc)
- having boundaries to how you present yourself.

How are they stified?
- e.g. if you belonged to a group that says NO YOU LOOK UGLY IN PINK WE DON'T LIKE YOU WEARING PINK, and you like the colour pink ... you wouldn't dare wear it right? You wouldn't dare defy their opinion due to the fact you'd be outcasted yes? Maybe wearing the colour pink = a part of who you are (identity), something that builds your sense of self. You'd have to hide/discard this part of you just to conform to this group that hates pink.

I think you would have already explored what makes up an "identity" in class.
One of the points would've been that you are born into a certain family and you can't choose this. The cultures, lifestyles that you are exposed to influence on who you develop to be. This group "family" both helps you become a certain person, but you can also look at it as stopping to from becoming someone totally different.

Religion is something you could talk about too. It's a group of a sort and it does set up boundaries.

If you're thinking about going against that prompt (certainly acceptable to do so in a persuasive form plus the topic says sometimes so in an expository essay you could explore this) you could say something like...
Belonging to a group helps a person develop their sense of identity as the laws and boundaries that come from this provides as a guide/direction to who this certain person will become. So here you could say having a group doesn't really "stifle", it's a part of developing an individual's identity.

[A "just sayin'" section of Toothy's post which is optional to read, move on if you don't want to spend extra time reading about something a little bit irrelevant to this thread.]
Anyway, what I found with context was that everyone thought the introductory bit of it was boring as hell. (i.e. defining what constitutes "belonging", "identity", making lists of problems that affects I&B etc). The people who struggled to write the essays later on were the ones who kept whinging about how mundane/slow/braindevouringahhhh it was at the start ... they pretty much found it hard to dig up ideas for each topic.


Oh and don't forget to read shinny's guide.

[pratyush6]

kekie, dont u have to have references to some text aswell,
cause i did mine last week and same promt but had to include references from bombshells

[monokekie]

awww Toothy,

thanks sooo much for your hint.

It really helps !

[monokekie]

kekie, dont u have to have references to some text aswell,
cause i did mine last week and same promt but had to include references from bombshells

I have to make reference to Witness.

Its really interesting to see another school doing the same prompt! haha