Have you ever felt like your identity was taken away from you? I have. For many, identity is just the image of society, for others, identity is much more. For me, it became something that I not only had to prove that I belonged to. Having two separate companies competing against each other made me realize that I didn't have to be the face of the company. I can be my own Vietnamese American. The individual versus society can be interpreted in different ways and the class readings showed the different interpretations. We become what our environment tells us to become and sometimes we get lost in the chaos. As individuals, what role do we play? We are extremely captivated by the image of society and we sometimes forget our morals, our life and our identity. It is fair to say that society is our guide that structures us to be part of social norms. Once the individual steps outside the box and adopts unknown behaviors, chaos is total and society is forced to bring social norms closer together. But what are the social norms? Through in-class and outdoor readings, the theme of Individual vs. Society is expressed and interpreted in several ways. It's hard enough trying to find your own identity, but when society constantly strives for the perfect image, identities get lost and we find ourselves accepting and becoming a robot of society. We all have our own identity in this world that is about to reveal itself. . But our identity is taken away from us when we do not step out of society's image. Stereotypes play a major role in the way society structures our image. Although everyone has their own identity, we stereotype all races by placing them in categories that strip them of their own identity. In the short article "Stereotyping...... middle of paper...... cism and the word itself. She states in her article “Racism is pervasive in American culture to the point that it profoundly affects everyone in local towns and spreads, negatively influencing the fate of people across the world. Racism is so pervasive that we take many of its manifestations for granted, believing that “that’s life” (99). We can deny as much as we want that society does not structure our way of living, but in reality, society's image is our pattern of life. We shape the way we live and become according to the desires of society. Author Gloria Yamato highlights how we also accept racism, stating that "that's life." Through all the readings, he interpreted the individual versus society in different ways. However, what it all boiled down to was a society that stripped away our identity, made us accept our path in society's image, and made us into society's robot...