Identity is an aspect of biological traits which individuals inherit from their earlier generations, and from which various identities are acquired by individuals through inheritance. Based on the above perspective the identity to which people claim to have is mainly constituted of their inborn characteristics; which they acquire from their parents or the other earlier generations. As a critical appraisal to the stories, “Young Goodman Brown”, Cask of Amontillados” and “The Yellow Paper” will be used to expound on the statement that people are born having their identities (Nathaniel 34, Gilman 13)
As the story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel portrays a character by the name of Goodman; the character is shown to poses the character traits that revolve around certain religious matters portrayed as being inborn in them. As the name ‘Goodman’ depicts; Goodman being the main character is associated with various evils within the society which proves ironic under the religious regard. Additionally, Goodman seems to be a nice responsible young man who to an extent is highly respected within the society; but one who conversely emerges to be an evil man.
As a result, this makes people not regard his burial with any respect after his death. This situation is evident from the statement “…and when he had lived long and was born to his grave…they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone for his dying hour was gloom” (Nathaniel 65). From the statement it is depicted how Goodman’s life was an evil one; further depicting the irony of his name as it was meant to be that of a good person.
The above statement asserts the evil life Goodman had led, despite his strong belief in religion. From this perspective therefore it can be seen that Goodman’s evil life is associated with his inborn characteristics; which are portrayed as being inherited from the grandfather. On this basis, therefore, character traits as the story brings out are biologically acquired; as individuals are believed to depict a very strong correlation between their identities to those of the generations they are born of; thus proving that these characteristics are biologically inborn in them(Nathaniel 36).
As it is from the story “The Yellow Wallpaper‟, the persona is being described as cruel and unfeeling; which she passes to her daughter who also turns out to be cruel. The persona’s cruelty from the story “The Yellow Wallpaper‟ is clearly shown, when she unfeelingly tramps on her fainted husband due to her lack of feelings regarding how to take care of him. This characteristic of the persona is further described as being far rooted, as the sister is also described as having the characteristics of being unfeeling and cruel from her dealings with people. In this respect, therefore, it can be seen that the story unveils the strong relationship between biological traits and identity development (Gilman 45-50).
More so as it is from the various phenomena; various characteristics in our diversified cultural backgrounds seem to be far initiated by our fore-kins. For example in the story the “Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor is described as vengeful as his father; based on which he is shown to be a person who never forgave but one who sought to revenge for the wrongs others did to him. Based on his genetically inherited unforgiving nature; he is shown to continuously haunt Fortunato finally killing him. However, even though the killing of Fortunato is not the key theme of the book; it is used to bring out Mountresso as a character that is very vengeful and never forgiving. Additionally, this is portrayed concerning his father who was also very vengeful to the people who wronged him (Poe 61).
As it has been portrayed from the above stories; identity development seems to be very much connected to the biological factors that people possess, which are biologically acquired. On this basis, therefore, it can be generally concluded that biological traits control identity development to a large extent.
Works cited
Gilman, Charlotte. “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Boston: Small Maynard Press. (1899):45-50.
Nathaniel, Hawthorne. “Young Goodman Brown”. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. (1835): 81-90.
Poe, Edgar. “Cask of Amontillado”. New York: Marvel Publishers. (1846):35-89.