Discussion

In the true story of Dutch Sullivan, we can contemplate whether his identity changed. Did it evolve, or did it return to an earlier version? I think there are a couple of ways to look at this. One theory of identity holds that your identity is determined by the roles that you play out in your life. There is a whole body of writing that describes how social roles define your identity. At any moment in time in this model, your identity is a function of the role you are playing at that moment in time. Often you’re likely to be playing multiple roles of varying degrees of importance to you. For example, you might be a parent, a teacher, a social worker, an executive, a friend, and so on. You probably find yourself changing focus and priorities....