Victor Valenzuela

Professor Rodrick
ENG 114B
March 12, 2016
Places Play a Roll
If you are present in this world, you will always find yourself in a
place. It can be somewhere you go to be at peace, or somewhere
wherein the day goes by so quick, you cant remember how long ago
your day started. Usually the case for this is work or school. Though
this usually depends on the situation you were born into. If you were
born in prosperity, your identity and personality will be cocky and
selfish. If you were born in poverty or sorrow, your character would be
strong and reliable, since the events that would eventually happen
would be of trauma and despair. That would mold a person into a
tough, self-sustained individual. I believe that the extent a persons
identity is formed through is the space in which it is presented to.
Being forced to conform with the circumstances of the environment a
person is born into. This is entirely a matter of where will a fetus will
appear. Say it is a city boy from New York, or a black women from the
streets of Watts.
In the first scenario, a baby boy is born in the suburban area of
Dallas, Texas. He comes home in a new car, to a loving couple that will
provide him with everything he needs and more, much more. He grows

up to start school in a public school within a gated community that has

no real threat of school shootings, bomb threats, or gang related
activity. He will most likely go graduate from high school and go to a
good college all because of the suburban space he was born in.
Everything has been provided to this little boy who had no worries or
had to work a day in his life. This boy will not learn to appreciate the
things given to him because they are exactly that, given. Now because
of the space he is in, and the chance he was given for free, the person
he is and who he became will know nothing about opportunities and
second chances that can be given. His identity would be a boy that
knows not how to cherish the person he has become, but a selfish,
ungrateful person that has had everything given to him. That is the
case for many Americans today. In the article, Parental background
and other-regarding preferences in children
By Michal Bauer, Julie Chytilov, andBarbara Pertold-Gebicka, explains
how children in earlier ages are expected to be more dependent from
families with higher incomes. Research has shown that young
children behave mostly selfishly, while
the prevalence of the positive side of other-regarding preferences
increases with age. Harbaugh et al. (2003a) observe that sharing in a
dictator game increases between seven and 18 years of age. Fehr et
al. (2008) find that selfishness dominates among 34-year-old children
and inequality aversion strongly develops up to the age of eight

years. It explains how children in earlier ages retain the care from
parents with a safer background, with no dangers in their lives, and
that was made him into the person he is. He conformed to being given
everything. This is one of the many scenarios of identity shaped
through the place someone is born into.

In the second scenario, we are in the bottom of the class system in

Chicago, Illinois. The hood part of Chicago where there is a baby girl
who is born into a family who isnt as blessed as a prosperous family.
Arrives home to a small house that holds 9 people, making her the
tenth. She has to go hungry some days because there is just nothing to
feed her. She sleeps by her mothers side because there is no crib for
her. Growing up, she did not know her father, leaving the void of mans
guidance in her life. She goes to school in a public institution that is
heavily guarded by officers and police dogs, and scanners. Her
educational guidance is done in a school where there are as many
shootings as there are kids in the school. She grows up to be a
pediatrician, one of the only girls who made it out of that
neighborhood. But only because she knew what hard work was and
executed it every day of her life. From protecting herself from the evils
of her surroundings. To not letting difficult situations bring her down.
Her hard life is what molded her identity. The place where she is from
gave no option but to conform as she grew up. Conform to the safety
precaution she had to take in the space she grew up, to the constant
pressure of helping her family, to make herself a valuable asset to her
family. Growing up in poverty is the one of many things that took place
in her striving out of it. The space she had to conform to, made her
identity a respectable women with self respect and a sense of
empathy. Again, that is a common case in the U.S. to this day. In the
article, Factors That Promote Persistence and Motivation Among
Successful, High Poverty, Urban High School Students by Lori A.
Kuhns, describes the current situation of poverty restrictions many
teens in America are faced with. Urban high school students who are
at-risk, specifically those living in poverty, have an increased

likelihood of experiencing educational challenges. According to Aaron

Pallas, a professor of human development at Columbia University,
young people are atrisk, or educationally disadvantaged, if they have
been exposed to inadequate or
inappropriate educational experiences in family, school, or
community.(kuhns 2) The many obstacles that people living in the
space of poverty have to face is the sole reason why their character
and identity is much different from people who are living in the space
of prosperity. Because they know what it is to be left to fend for
themselves and their family.
Identity would use factors such as space, or places of origins for
consideration. Since the places people are in effect them in a sense
that molds who they are because of the parameter of the space a
person is in, identity is easily shaped. Whether itd be a rich place or a
poor place, they each play a major role in decided how a person will
act and comprehend. How a person will either show empathy, or hate
and selfishness towards another person. In order to perceive how they
effect them, we must put ourselves in the shoes of each of the two
outcomes. Would we be the same if we knew how much money we
would have? Or would we humble ourselves knowing about the tough
situations that our out there for other people to endure? That is what
space molds about identity. The circumstance presented itself to an
individual.

Work Cited

Bauer, Michal, Julie Chytilov, and Barbara Pertold-Gebicka. "Parental

Background
and Other-regarding Preferences in Children."
Experimental Economics, 17.1
(2014): 24-46.
Kuhns, Lori A. Factors That Promote Persistence and Motivation Among
Successful,
High Poverty, Urban High School Students. n.p.: ProQuest
Dissertations Publishing, 2013.