Persona...

persona |pərˈsōnə|
noun ( pl. -sonas or -sonae |-ˈsōnē|)
the aspect of someone's character that is presented to or perceived by others : her public persona. In psychology, often contrasted with anima .
• a role or character adopted by an author or an actor.
ORIGIN early 20th cent.: Latin, literally ‘mask, character played by an actor.’

are our identities made up of our consciousness (who we believe we are), or does it comprise of our unconsciousness (the deepest desires and needs that we suppress and hide from everyone including self)?

a regular discussion in literature class has been brought to life by the circumstance that i've stumbled upon...


does the expectations of others define who we are? deny it as hard as you want to, but THAT is the truth... and it is also fact that different people (including the ego) have different expectations of us... and the question is, do we put on different masks to play different roles when we are around different people?

your boss expects you to be a productive worker...
your teacher expects you to be a hardworking student keen on learning...
your mother expects you to grow up into a successful person...
your husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend expects you to be a faithful lover...
your peers expect you to provide good company...
your ego expects you to defend yourself...

is it possible to fulfill all those roles at the same time? you can try, and can even die trying... but i'm not saying that it's impossible... but when you find yourself finally able to reach the expectations of everyone around you, then who are you really? does the expectation of others make you who you are? or are you who you really are?

can you fault someone for wanting just to be himself and to do what he thinks is right? yes you can, to you, he may be selfish or uncommitted... but can you also be faulted for imposing your own expectations on him, and snuffing out his very true self in the process?

can you fault someone who wants to please others around him? yes you can, to you he may be a hypocrite, or even someone who's living out a lie... but in the process of trying to define what's right to do and what's not, are you also guilty of allowing his life to affect your very own expectation of yourself, thus denying your own identity in the process??