Task 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Task 2 - Essay Example The Other will always be lesser, not as good, and below the members of the group at large. This is not a new phenomenon. It is something we have seen play itself out throughout history and it is reflected in many works of literature as well. To some extent, the concept of the Other is a means of social control. It is a method of separating out into groups those who think as we do and those who do not. If someone does not think as we do, then they must be lesser than we are. They must also be ‘against’ us. Thus, caution should be exercised when dealing with a person who is an Other. In Melissa Algranati’s essay, â€Å"Being an Other,† otherness is presented as a state of being wherein you have no peer group or cohort, outside of your own family. â€Å"I learned at a young age that there are not too many Puerto Rican, Egyptian Jews out there† (Algranati, 1996, p.135). For Algranati, the realization that you are a one-of-a-kind is startling. It forces a separateness from other people. She could not simply choose one group to identify with. She explains: â€Å"For most of my life I’ve been living in two worlds, and at the same time I’ve been living in neither† (135). Algranati finds her state of being an Other most disconcerting when she is asked to choose identification for herself on the PSAT. She talks about her confusion at even being asked to select only one group with whom to identify, since choosing one means leaving out the other, which is, as she put it, â€Å"leav[ing] out so much† (135). Our identity is i n part shaped by how other people perceive us. â€Å"But when the criteria for ascribing a certain identity include things over which you have no control –as is the case with gender, race, and sexual orientation—then whether you identify with that identity†¦is not only up to you† (Appiah, 2005, p. 70). For Algranati, both parents have spent their lives as Others as well. Her father’s family was displaced—first