Amin Maalouf’s Idea Essay

My understanding of Amin Maaloufs concept on individualism is that human identity is ground on an individuals environment. He defines identity into two categories. One that is inherited through our elders and cultural beliefs vertical, and another that exist according to our generational influence, horizontal. The two categories create our identity as a human and is the source of our behavior. My experience with the vertical heritage is my belief in Christianity.My ancestors and the community I was raised in have traditionally taught me to celebrate religious holidays like Christmas and Easter. I also grew up in a small neighborhood with Christian peers. They have influenced the way I persuade and interact by helping to shape my morals. My experience with the horizontal is the communities I have been introduced to, such as, the universe and private school environments. They have broadened my personality with their complaisant aspects. One example of what Maalouf is saying is my switch from public to private school.My personality was much dissimilar in public school than it was in private. In my public school the social standard for academic progress was average. The fact that there was no assigned dress code distracted me because I would attempt to run others with my appearance. This influenced my train of thought, behavior and ultimately my identity, until I was placed into a different setting. When I made the switch to private school the distraction of looking different was taken away, and expectations were higher.My surrounding influenced me again and I became more focused on things that mattered and more questionable of my beliefs. What I gained from both these settings was my horizontal inheritance. For example, the music that I mind to and the hobbies I enjoy. Maaloufs point is that no matter your vertical, your horizontal has a bigger affect on your identity, and since the horizontal is based on contemporaries, you be based on the subjects aroun d you. He points out that there is a gap between what we think we are and what we actually are in reality.We may sock we are different but what we dont realize is in reality we are only becoming identical through arguing are differences. I believe this is a magnificent insight on identity. Mankind changes the world around us and if we all do the same, we end up in each others world. We are becoming more and more identical to each other through compromise from arguing our differences because we learn to go bad with each other. When we accept differences they soon become norms, and once they are norms, they become a standard. I agree with Amin Maaloufs concept on identity.