The Quest for Identity in American Literature

The quest for identity depends a lot on the emotional, cultural and social stability of an individual. Stability is the ultimate 

stage of this quest, this is why I believe there is a strong interdependence between the two. One cannot speak of identity 

without referring to emotional, social and cultural stability. Apart from these three dimensions of the human being, another 

important aspect of the American identity is the feminine identity.

In order to deal with these four aspects, I will refer to several American short stories, as it follows:

1. The quest for emotional stability: A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett

The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway

Death of a Traveling Salesman by Eudora Welty

2. The quest for social stability: Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville

Barn Burning by William Faulkner

That Evening Sun by William Faulkner

3. The quest for cultural stability: The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky by Stephen Crane

Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving

4. The quest for feminine identity: Old Mortality by Katherine Anne Porter

1. The quest for emotional stability:

"« A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett,

"« The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway

"« Death of a Traveling Salesman by Eudora Welty

A White Heron, by Sarah Orne Jewett is a story of a girl who attained emotional stability by remaining true to her own 

values and by refusing to yield to the masculine dominance in a patriarchal world. It is through silence that she remains 

'outside history' and thus maintains her place in nature, as opposed to the hunter whose world is 'history', governed by 

science, language and knowledge.

As she accompanies the hunter through the woods in search of the white heron she feels the need to be loved and decides 

she should help him: "Sylvia still watched the young man with loving admiration. She had never seen anybody so charming 

and delightful; the woman's heart, asleep in the child, was vaguely thrilled by a dream of love."

By choosing to help him she will become part of 'history' / 'civilization', fitting in the patterns of society with the price of 

losing her true identity. Her emotional state is very uncertain at this point, because she doesn't know what to do. She is 

placed between nature and civilization and must choose only one of them. The climb up the huge tree is a turning point for 

her, it represents her initiation to adulthood. When she finally reaches the top she realizes that she is just like the white 

heron. The communion with nature determines her to remain true to her own values and thus be a part of nature. The few 

moments when she observed the white heron, are much more stronger, from an emotional point of view, than the time spent 

together with the hunter. It is on top of the pine tree that she becomes fully aware of her origin and destiny, that is, to remain 

close to nature and be a part of it. She reaches emotional stability by remaining true to her self.

This is not the case with the main character, Harry, in Ernest Hemingway's short story The Snows of Kilimanjaro. He has 

betrayed his inner self, his true vocation and thus  died artistically long before he reached his physical death. What tortures 

him more than the knowledge of approaching dissolution is the consciousness of all the literary riches, none of them 

committed to paper, which will go with him underground. He chose a luxurious life at the expense of his emotional 

fulfillment through art. What tortures him most are the memories of his former life when he had liberty and integrity, and 

which now are irrecoverably lost.

The conflict in Harry's life is between moral idealism vs. materialism. When Harry looks at Kilimanjaro, he sees it as a 

symbol of truth. The leopard is then a symbol for Harry's moral nature. It is not logical that Harry should continue to believe 

in man and search for meanings and values; neither is it logical that a leopard should have reached that snowy height. What 

drove the leopard there is the same sort of mystery as the force that keeps idealism alive in Harry. Both leopard and 

mountain symbolize the preservation of integrity for Harry. In contrast to the leopard's dried and frozen carcass, Harry lies 

dying of a gangrenous leg in the heat of the desert. The physical infection is the result of carelessness, just as a spiritual 

infection may also be caused by the same reason. Thus we have both physical and spiritual decay, while leopard and 

mountain represent those things which do not decay. Harry's thoughts often revert to experiences in high altitudes and 

snows. These reversions represent the longing for the good life of the past, when he had emotional stability.

The character Bowman in Eudora Welty's short story Death of a Traveling Salesman is a generic character who represents the modern man in quest for emotional stability. Socially speaking he is well integrated, he is a salesman and a has a place 

in society. He is a product of the city and his constant travels are a metaphor for the restlessness of the life of modern man. 

But in spite of his social position, he has heart problems. His heart is empty of love, and it is only when he encounters 

Sonny and his wife that he realizes his desperate need for love. He even says that "my heart puts up a struggle inside me (...) 

protesting against emptiness". Bowman is in search for emotional stability but it is too late for him. The greed for material 

things was the cause of his both physical and spiritual death.

2. The quest for social stability:

"h Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville

"h Barn Burning by William Faulkner

"h That Evening Sun by William Faulkner

Bartelby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville is a story of the isolation and death (both

spiritual and physical) of all those who resist and refuse to fit into the patterns of modern society. Bartleby is a young man 

who works as a scrivener in a law office. He is a motionless worker who simply copies documents rather like a machine. 

Even from the beginning we can see that he is very quiet and his life is limited only to his job. We know nothing about his 

private life, because, in fact, there isn't much to know. All that we are told about him is connected only to his job, and to his 

place in the 'System'. Bartleby is a victim of the System in which each individual must do what is expected to do, based on 

regulations, standards and norms, making it predictable. In order to succeed, the System must destroy individuality, which is 

unpredictable. That is why Bartleby is a victim. He is in search for social stability but not in this System. He needs to fit in a 

totally different system where privacy, mystery, silence, all of them are allowed. In other words, he would fit only in an 

utopian system based on individuality. He is in quest for social and emotional stability, but never finds them. He dies facing 

a wall, which is symbolic for his entrapment in the System. His identity is gradually annihilated and in the end he dies.

Abner Snopes in Barn Burning by William Faulkner is in quest for social stability. He is a victim of the society in which he 

lives and, to a certain extent, he is its product. The story deals with the distinction between classes, between those who own 

prosperity and those who do not. Snopes always tries to preserve his integrity. He is a stern father and husband, but he 

becomes violent only when he feels that he has been threatened. His behaviour is partly motivated by his place in society: 

"Maybe he will feel to it. Maybe it will even change him now from what maybe he couldn't help but be." - says Sarty, 

Abner's son.Nancy in That Evening Sun by William Faulkner is also a victim of the 'system'. She is both economically and 

socially marginal and this is why she becomes 'invisible' as a human being in the eyes of the Compson family. They are 

unable to see the danger of Nancy's situation and they don't understand her at all. Jesus, her ex-boyfriend threatened her and 

she is terrified that he will come after her. But this doesn't seem to affect the Compsons as long as she is doing her duty in 

the house.

Nancy has given up her social identity: "I ain't nothing but a nigger... and I'll be nothing soon". She has given up her quest 

and all she wants now is just a little protection. But it seems that those who attained this stability are too selfish to help her 

just because she is black. Nancy's story shows the difficulty of black people to integrate in the American culture.

3. The quest for cultural stability:

"« The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky by Stephen Crane

"« Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving

The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky by Stephen Crane is the story of a sheriff who got married and thus deconstructed the myth 

of the Wild West. Yellow Sky is a town where childish rituals between the sheriff and the inhabitants constantly take place. 

When Scratchy gets drunk everybody knows that the marshal will start shooting and will come and take him to jail. It is a 

ritual with no reality attached to it. Scratchy refuses to change and wants to pretend to be the bad guy. But Potter wants to 

change and adjust to the changing reality surrounding him, that is civilization. The town has all the components of 

civilization: telegraph, train, but the townspeople refuse to accept them as part of their identity. Even if they need these new 

facilities, they ignore them and keep living in a mythical past of the Wild West. But the sheriff violates some important 

rules of the traditional Wild West: he gets married and doesn't have a gun. It is at this point that Scratchy understands that 

he must make way for new realities and accept the end of the Wild West era. He even says at one point: "I suppose it's all 

off."

Potter is a new man and the dignity of his new "estate" saves him in the moment of crisis between him and Scratchy. He 

loves his wife and can be man enough and show it to the others. Maybe it was easier for him to shoot than to stand 

defenseless together with his new wife and declare his new identity. The 'bride' doesn't have a name, she represents the 

institution of marriage. Potter has reached emotional and cultural stability by accepting the reality and adjusting to it. He is 

in quest for a new identity detached from old myths and legends and in the end he finds it.

The main character from the short story Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving is also in quest for his identity. He doesn't 

know who he is. Before disappearing he was somebody who couldn't adjust to the 'system' and thus he escapes in nature, the 

Kaatskill mountains, in a sort of mythical past. This regression helps him see an idealized America. After his 'escape' from 

reality, he comes back and manages to become what he had always wanted to be: a patriarch.

Culturally speaking, he is the living proof of the American history. He reached social and cultural stability and managed to 

rebuild his identity through story telling.

Rip Van Winkle has become a member of the American society due to his memories of the past. He is able to communicate 

with the others, he is respected and appreciated by the others because he represents their link to the past. Both him as the 

rest of the community reinforce their identities. He has acquired a place in society, he is no longer a misfit on the contrary, 

he has found his identity.

4.  The quest for feminine identity: Old Mortality by Katherine Anne Porter

There is another type of quest for identity: the feminine one. Sylvia in A White Heron has found her new feminine identity 

by refusing to accept the patriarchal dominance and by remaining true to her inner self.

In Katherine Anne Porter's story Old Mortality, Miranda is also in quest for her feminine identity. As opposed to Amy who 

was a victim of the illusions entertained by her family, Miranda rebels and decides to elope against her father's will. She 

decides to commit her own mistakes and to live her own 'legend', not Amy's. She wants to devote herself to knowing "the 

truth about what happens to me". In the end, we see her move towards freedom, into an increased self-awareness, 

determined to live her life not in the dim shadow of her family's glorious past, but according to her own values and 

standards.

The quest for identity in American literature is a major theme that has influenced many American writers. Writers such as 

Washington Irving, Sarah Orne Jewett, Ernest Hemingway, Eudora Welty, Herman Melville, William Faulkner, Stephen 

Crane, Katherine Anne Porter, they all tried to define their own identity by continually dealing with this theme in their 

works. Whether there be black vs. white, rich vs. poor, male vs. female, individual vs. society, individual vs. nature, nature 

vs. civilization, South vs. West etc., the quest for identity is always present in one way or another in their works. All these 

conflicts show the need to find one's identity and to be part of a culture. The writers try to illustrate the need for an identity 

by using these conflicts as the starting point of their plots and thus creating a sense of the American identity in the mind of 

the reader.