Since lately I have been contemplating how identity applies to just about everything I see and encounter everyday, I started to think about how it applies to Halloween. Essentially, this "holiday," I am not sure if we call it this, allows people to dress up and assume an any identity other than their own for one day. Interestingly, you rarely see anyone just go as themselves. Most people embrace this day and buy or put together a "costume." This costume and behavior that they enact while wearing this costume seems to be their exaggerated view of the identity that the real person has. This may be easier seen with an example. For instance, a person who is kind, good natured, and a school teacher, may dress up as a Dracula or a doctor for Halloween and in doing so adjust not only the way they dress but the way they act for that day and conform with the generalized societal view of how Dracula or a doctor acts, when in reality these both may be very unique depending on the person who has the role in real life.
OK, well what does this mean? To be honest, I do not know the answer, but Halloween always makes me wonder, especially now, why people love the idea of dressing up and being someone else for a day. I even love this, but I can not figure out why. It is not that I do not like who I think I am, and I am guessing this is not the reason for the popularity of the day. Maybe the appeal is that you have to be you every other day of the year, so for this one day it is fun to be someone else for a change. But then I wonder if your true identity determines what identity you will most likely pretend to be for the day. Using the profession one has as the definition for an identity, are doctors more likely to pretend to be angels or devils and are construction workers more likely to pretend to be baseball players. If this is the case then perhaps you can't escape your identity even when you try. Also, I wonder if it is even fair to pretend to be an identity that you really know nothing about. If we know nothing about this identity then how is it possible for us to pretend to be it, and are our portrayed misconceptions offending people? I know I am probably looking way to deeply into just a fun day of free candy and dressing up, but what do you think?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI really like what you had to say here about Halloween and identity! I also find the fascination people have with dressing up and pretending to have identities different from their usual extremely interesting. Like you said, perhaps people are not really unhappy with their own identities, but they just want to "try another one on" for a day or a few hours. I think that this also has to do with the reason why people enjoy reading books and watching movies so much. Such experiences allow people the opportunity to escape from their own lives and identities and enter those of another person, time, or place. I think that what makes these activities so desirable may be some combination of the escape from the familiar and the desire to gain a greater understanding of the world by seeing it through another's eyes. I will agree with you that taking on another identity is a lot of fun, and maybe by doing so we somehow increase our understanding of ourselves?
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely an interesting situation in which one's clothing/makeup almost completely defines one's identity and actions for a night. I wonder if "Halloween frees one from the self" as your title postulates, or if Halloween actually frees the true self. I agree with Julie that this holiday allows people to try on an identity that they may have been curious about for a day relatively free from social pressures. That said, however, there are definitely some constraints on what people consider "acceptable" costume attire that vary depending on your circle of friends. But maybe in dressing up we reveal a part of our identity that would otherwise remain untapped.
Matt