Class Exercises - Identity

→Identity For Sale

Imagine that you have decided to put “all of your life” up for sale. Select three items that you currently own and write a single paragraph description of each one that would make it appealing to a buyer on an eBay auction. Do not identify yourself. Then submit your descriptions to your instructor, who will blindly exchange them with someone else’s. After receiving the other person’s descriptions, write a short profile in which you construct an image of that individual based solely on an object selected in their description.

→Phase Narrative

Using a memory of your own life, cover a period of time (a "phase," such as a summer, or a holiday season, or the first semester of college, etc.) in this exercise.

Write a generous narrative summary telling in general what happened in that phase of your life. Then make a transition to a particular portion of that period that has special significance. This will probably require you to continue the narrative summary for a short while.

Then enter into a scene that opens onto a turning point in your life. Take your time, setting the stage for this scene. This first part introduces the important slice of the memory; it does not have to tell the important thing that happened. It might simply tell what happened that led to what happened, or that brought a new person into the picture. It's the scene that goes from narrative to saying, "And then--" Move into the “and then” part with direct dialogue, and complete the scene with as much dialogue as you can.

→The Photograph

Pick an image. This can be a photograph from your personal life, a picture in a magazine or in an art gallery or it can be part of a memory, a still image, real or imagined. What is important is that you have in your mind a picture that is framed—isolated if you will—from everything else. This frame serves as the structure of the story; you are bound to what lies within. And yet, there is so much more within than meets the eye. You can describe what is there, but you can also have the power to imagine what happened just prior to this event. How did the image come to be? And you have the power to project what might happen next. The focus is still on the particular present and yet, doors and window fly open on either side, broadening the history and knowledge.

→My Pet

Write a short story on the subject “My Pet.” The only requirement is that this must be a pet you have never owned. It can be anything from a kitten to a dinosaur, from a fly to a dragon. Describe what you pet looks like, how you acquired it, what it eats and where it sleeps, what tricks it can do, and how it gets on with your family, friends, neighbors, and/or the people where you work. Is the pet in your composition like or unlike you, and how?

→Imagine

Imagine yourself in the role of one of your parents. Write about your life from either your father’s or your mother’s point of view. What went wrong, or what went right, in your upbringing? You can stretch the “truth” a little if you choose. What mistakes do your parents think you made? What are the effects of their upbringing on you? Choose a single event in your life, and use it as the central image for creating a brief story that defines the relationship between you and your parents.

→Identity through Family

Free write for 10 minutes on the ways in which family ties have shaped and changed your identity over time. Write a poem using an event that shows your attitude to family ties.

→Gender Roles

Collect advertisements from magazines or describe popular Hollywood movies, TV, comics or magazines, and analyze the ways in which men and women are portrayed in terms of who appears to be in charge and what kinds of roles they fill. What seems to make up “masculinity” and “femininity”? Discuss how you see men or women presented in the media nowadays and how that portrayal matches with the behavior of the men or women you know.

→Mad-Lib Friends Poem

Fill in the blanks as quickly, intuitively, and imaginatively as you can.

One of my friends is a ______________, the other a ____________.

One was a ________________, the other a ______________.

In the night I’d wake to __________ and the faint smell of ___________.

The ________________ tattooed on my lower back

is the one for _____________.

One of my friends was a __________________,

the other a _______________ I carried into the night,

convinced it was _____________.

One of my friends I drank, the other I dreamt.

In the revolving door of my becoming,

one ____________, and one _______________

Thus, my troubled dreams, my endless ______________.

One was a ____________, the other a ______________. I am ashamed

of _______________, embarrassed I couldn’t ____________________.

I was a friend calling across the ____________ to a ________________

she/he didn’t have.

→Create your own Culture

Introduction: (better and more fun if done collaboratively)
Imagine that you are a famous explorer who has just returned from some far corner of the universe-- a vast desert, a mighty mountain range, the uncharted expanses of the ocean, and so on. On your voyage, you came upon a previously undiscovered civilization! Now that you have returned from your journey, you must now present your discovery to the rest of the world. What was this fantastic civilization like? What myths and stories did they tell? What was their culture like?

Task:

Imagine a civilization that has never been discovered by the rest of the world until now. Create a set of notes about this civilization and, most importantly, its culture and myths that could be presented as evidence of your discovery.

Process:

Decide what kind of culture you have 'found'. You might want to consider:

-Where does this culture live?

-How is it that we've never discovered them before?

-How do they live their daily lives?

-How do they survive? Get their food? Water?

-How does this culture express itself? What is its music like? What foods do they eat? How do they express their creativity?

-What does this culture believe in? Who are their gods/goddesses? What are their myths?

Before Writing:

You’ll need to consider:

-Background info on how you found the culture and what they are like

-Information on AT LEAST five gods/goddesses worshiped by the culture

-A summary of the CREATION MYTH of the culture

-A summary of a MYTHIC HERO of the culture

-A summary of a MYTHIC MONSTER of the culture

-A summary of the HEROIC MYTH involving the hero and monster

-A summary of a NATURE MYTH of the culture

-A CONCLUSION explaining what you learned from the culture

Things you’ll need:

-Setting

-Hero

-Talisman

-Journey

Now, write a short folktale for your invented culture that incorporates your findings. Use the Three Act story as a pattern, being sure to identify as many elements of the culture as you can.