The Flame Resistant Pieces of Human Identity

It is in the essence of human nature to be flawed. As human beings, we all have our habits and unique personality traits. But sometimes these characteristics seem to be detrimental yet impossible to change. Indeed, it is extremely difficult to get rid of the fundamental parts of one’s identity.
People would most like to reinvent their identity under harsh criticism, extreme monotony, or when faced with difficult decisions. Because it is the most habitual traits that are the most ingrained and thus become almost instinctual, it takes criticism from others to bring the characteristic to light for you. We live in a highly social society in which everyone is striving to be perfect, but everyone is fundamentally flawed. It is no secret that those visible flaws of one’s character get called out by others at some point. In the case of Spiderman in James Hall’s poem “Maybe dats your pwoblem too,” it is sheer monotony that drives the super hero to the point of wanting to give it all up for a new identity. Hall is essentially demonstrating that even super heroes, who are supposed to be perfect, possess flaws detrimental enough to warrant a reinvention of identity. When life stops being meaningful, as being a super hero becomes for Spiderman, we start to question our own identities. In reality, monotony in the workplace or monotony in personality may cause this effect. In other words, one may become bored of seeing life through the same lens everyday, especially if the lens does not work right. This is why reading and movies are such popular activities for our society: it is truly a novel experience to see life through the viewpoint of someone with a completely different personality.
If I could reinvent myself and take on a new identity, I would become more talkative and less introverted. I am tired of not knowing what to say and remaining quiet in a group of people I have never met before. I am tired of being afraid of what people will think of my every word instead of just expressing my thoughts. However, it would be extremely hard to simply become an extrovert because introversion has become an integral part of my identity and my personality. I may be able to become more talkative, but it will still be my instinct to be hesitant until I have something important to say because I have lived with that personality characteristic my whole life. Even if I wanted to change, it would take years of practice to completely change just one aspect of my personality. Just because I think being an extrovert would make life more interesting doesn’t mean I can just become one at will. Indeed, introversion has become so much a part of me as Spiderman’s suit that both are completely “fwame wesistant.” Try as I might to get rid of the introvert in me, I will never be able to completely burn it out of me, just as Spiderman is never able to destroy his suit (505).

The Detrimental Power of Excessive Pride

For centuries, we as humans have considered the consequences of being over-confident. For the Greeks, hubris brought downfall and suffering. In Sophocles’ Antigone, an extremely self-centered king named Creon causes the suicide three people, two of whom were his wife and his son. It is only after he has been reduced to a shadow of his former self that Creon realizes his inherent flaw of hubris.
I believe that it is in human nature to be greedy, to want to procure the most material that ensures appeasement and survival. This greed, in turn, leads to a common feeling of pride and invincibility in those who have so much that their values become convoluted into a twisted mess of nonsense. That is not to say that wealth and power lead automatically to egoism; it is just that those with the most power and wealth seem to be more self-centered than those with less. I also would not say that pride leads to suffering and pain. One must possess a certain amount of pride to function in a life filled with hardship and adversity. But excessive pride can cloud one’s vision and warp the mind to become amoral and lowly.
Human life in general would be better if some weren’t so snobby, but there are countless examples of the rich and famous donating billions of dollars to charity. It is these people that I tend to pay attention too, not those who keep most for themselves and seem not to care at all about the world around them. I would say that the chorus’s statement at the end of the play is correct in that for those who are too self-centered, it takes a series of detrimental events to bring them back to earth. Thus, they are taught that humility is a valuable trait to have in a world in which anyone can fall. Does this happen too often though? The ideal would be for it not to happen at all.
One of the areas in which pride leads to failure is the workplace. There are countless people who complain that they have to go to work everyday with others who cannot take any criticism and thus are incapable of leading or maintaining the favor of their more humble co-workers. If these proud people could just realize that others may have better ideas, then a significantly greater amount of work would get done on account of less arguing. In this sense, it is clear that inordinate amounts of pride are detrimental to the functioning of an individual, especially a worker. It may even take a firing or a meeting held to call out this individual before he or she realizes that over-confidence is a significant personal problem. Nearly once a week I hear about a co-worker that my parents disapprove of because of rash decision making and failure to hear others’ ideas.
All in all, I think the world would become a more peaceful, moral place if all humans realized their place within the order, thus downplaying feelings of invincibility or all-encompassing power. In our human society as it is, there are self-centered individuals who realize their personality flaws in time to make a significant difference. It is these people who are promising. But, as long as greed and materialism persist in humanity, excessive pride will continue.