1. Identity, or who do you think you are?

2. Identity What does the word “identity” mean to you?
What other words (synonyms) can you come up with to describe the word “identity”?

3. Examining the Everyday
Lost for nearly 50 years, a wallet is returned to its owner, Casimiro Naranjo III, by a Japanese construction crew.
Read the story . . .

4. What do the contents of a wallet reveal about a person’s identity?
Imagine how your life would be thrown in disorder if you lost your wallet. How would such a loss affect your ability to function normally – at least until you could replace the lost items? In many ways, our wallets and purses represent our identity to the world.
For instance, like Naranjo, most of us carry several forms of identification in a wallet or purse: pool or gym memberships, driver’s licenses, library cards, ATM cards, video store cards, club membership cards, school IDs, coffee club cards, discount cards, and credit cards. Even wallet-sized photos identify our families and friends.

5. This is the nature of identification, yet most people do not connect their identification to their sense of identity. After all, what do all of these pocket-sized pieces of plastic and paper really say about us? They identify us to others like bank tellers, librarians, sales clerks, so that we can make transactions. They help to label us to others.
However, for Naranjo, each item in his recovered wallet helps construct a portrait of his 19-year-old self. Each item has a story to tell about his identity at that time.

6. Assignment
What stories could someone piece together about you based solely on an examination of your wallet, purse, or backpack and its contents?
For this initial assignment, write a one-page profile about yourself using only your wallet or purse and its contents to represent your life.

7. One-Page Profile: Your profile should answer the following questions:
1. Taken separately or together, how do the contents of your wallet/purse construct an image of your identity?
2. What assumptions might someone make about your personality, values, or identity based on what you carry in your wallet/purse?

8. One-Page Profile Add a final paragraph that answers this question?
3. If all they had to go on is your wallet, what would people miss or be unable to know about you?

9. Assignment Instructions:
Sign on to a computer
Open up the Hand-Out folder
Find my name: Brandt, Sara
Open up the document: “Student_Identity_One_Page_Assignment”
Follow the instructions from there to know what to do.

10. Work Cited
Latterell, Catherine G. Remix. 2nd Ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010: 3 – 4.