According to Ricoeur, our identity is based on the story of life.

How our life

story is created, recounted and remembered.
According to Ricoeur, We narrate our story through emplotment. Emplotment
is the intervention of creativity. We create our story by the three fold mimesis
namely the prefiguration, configuration and refiguration. In prefiguration, we begin
with the events and actions that are sure to have effects, which are sure to have an
outcome. These events and actions need to cause something because these will be
the beginning of your story and where your life story will stem out from. It is in this
stage that we see that man is acting and suffering. We do these events and actions
and were also the ones who will receive the effects of our doing. It is in this stage
that we can predict our story because our actions will be connected to one another.
In configuration, it is where emplotment happens. It is the stage where the order
and structure of the story is fixed to connect the different effects of the events and
actions from the prefiguration stage. In this stage, not only intended actions take
place but also unintended ones. These unintended actions play a huge role on our
story. These actions are beyond our control and the effects of these actions connect
and are connected to the effects of our intended actions. In refiguration, we recount
that happened from prefiguration to configuration. It is in this stage we will
understand our self more. There will be inconsistencies in the way that we recount
our story and how the others will recount our stories. It is also in this stage that the
understanding between man and the world, man and man, and man and self can be
seen.
Creativity is a channel of possibilities that can lead to more possibilities. The
Narrative Identity is the series of action that comprises our life story. The narrative
identity introduces us to subjectivity. Subjectivity is not only discovering different
things around you but also creating out of those discovery/discoveries. It is in this
subjectivity that we open our self to the possibility of change but we still remain as
ourselves. We remain the same because of our different promises. Promise implied
by Ricoeur is the resistance to change. Entangled stories are the collection or fusion
of the readers and the authors of the story. It is the collection of the different
interpretations of the different events in your life by you, and by the interpretation
of the others. For example, Im giving my brother some tough love but others will
interpret it as being a bad sibling to him. It is not only ourselves who has the right to
tell and be creative in our stories but others as well. It is through this that we
recognize that in order to know ourselves, we also need to learn how we are to
others.
As said earlier, different interpretations of the different events in your life are
inevitable. These inconsistencies can cause a rift between you and others. These
rifts call us to forgive. The famous saying to forgive is to forget is not true. To
forgive is not to forget but to remember, to remember without feelings. When you
forget, you close yourself to the possibility of reconciliation. Forgiving is an act of
faith because when you forgive, you see past what the other has done to you. It is

hard to forgive but not impossible. Reconciliation is important because it is a happy

memory. Happy memories give meaning to our existence. We cannot recount our
happy memories without the others. According to our discussion, happy memory is
a testament of mans capacity to recognize one self. It is through recounting these
happy memories that we get to know more and understand ourselves more.
According to Ricoeur, our identity is not based solely on us but to our connection to
other people. We must be thankful to other people because it is our connection to
them that comprises our identity.