After reading, By Any Other Name, by Santha Ramu Rau, our English class had a debate. Some students said, "Regardless of a name, a person maintains who they essentially are," while the rest of the students argued, "One can create separate identities by the name or title they are given." Just by looking at these two arguments, I would have to say that a person maintains who they essentially are, regardless of what they are called. In the story, Santha hated her life and felt no obligation to cherish her life as Cynthia because it was uncomfortable and forced. At school, Cynthia (Santha under the name of Cynthia) was pushed to wear dresses instead of traditional Indian clothes, was pushed to eat sandwiches instead of chapatties and curry, and was forced to be a "good sport" and play games competitively unlike the friendly-natured games she had played before. As shown here, Santha's life as Cynthia was artificial and did not correspond with the lifestyle she had lived as Santha. Similarly, her sister Premila, renamed at the school as Pamela, was negatively influenced by the rest of the girls at the school, and forcefully tried to change her lifestyle to match that of Pamela's. However, at the end of the story, Premila walked out on the school, representing the abandoning of her identity as Pamela, and restoration of her true identity as Premila.
However, I think that the creation of separate identities is not impossible. In fact, I have a "dual personality" myself. At home, my family calls me by my Korean name, and at school, I am called by my English name. But do I like one life or identity more than the other? No!! But why is that? Well, if you closely inspect the phrasing of the author when she talks about dual personalities, you would see that she says, "At that age...(a young age)" This is very important because personalities and identities are formed when you are young. I've been going to an international school since I was three years old, so my mix of Western culture and Korean culture are what compose "me." I have a dual identity or personality, but both those identities are very important to me and I do not value one more than the other, because both are very necessary to my life.
