A person’s sense of self is always derived to some degree from the social and culture environment in which s/he lives. The pressures of culture in identity production can be particularly grueling for individuals in minority groups, as their heightened visibility as “other” within the cultural environment invokes more external definition by the dominant culture. Self definition, then, involves a constant psychological conflict, as the individual’s sense of self battles with the powerful voice of the cultural hegemony. Two novels that address the difficulty of self identification for early twentieth century black Americans are Ernest J. Gaines’s A Lesson Before Dying and Toni Morrison’s Sula. The protagonists of these books, Jefferson and Sula, respectively, struggle to self identify within the restrictive confines of their communities.
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