Land of the Free or Misfit Island???

After reading these three articles, I was reminded of the story Rudolf the Rednose Reindeer. Where all of the toys that didn't have the proper parts, or worked the opposite of what they were crafted to do, were all sent to an island called, The Island of Misfit Toys. Until one day Rudolf saved the day and proved to everyone in the North Pole that just because you are different doesn't necessarily mean that you don't belong anywhere. I could definitely relate to all three of these articles because being adopted at a very young age of 18 months, I still to this day have no knowledge of what my identity is nationally, racially, or ethnically. I too have went through life with the question "what are you?". My bestfriend from back home, in Milwaukee, Wi, has never made an issue about it or even questioned what my nationality was. It was not until I turned 18 years old and started to experience life outside of my own small, unidentifiable world, did others begin to realized how differnt I really was from my adoped family and began to really question of what am I. After a while of getting annoid with that question I would answer "HUMAN". Not too many liked that answer because they would then follow with a statement of explaining what they meant, in which I clearly understand what they were meaning.

I have noticed that with all three of the literatures, even though different scenerios, the authors have felt a sense of not belonging. Wondering of where they might fit in. In Martin's article, she mentioned of "the different Laurens, the different versions of who I am, not competing with one another, but all of them calmly resting inside" (Martin, pg.6) . I think that many of us have been in that situation where we might feel like a camelion, fitting in, or changing for different settings and surroundings. Being called, white, so that the other whites would be able to associate with me because they loved my personality. Italian, because I was too dark to be white and too light to be black. Hispanic because of my latino features; others (Mexicans and Latinos) would approach me mumbling "Ablo Espano" automatically assuming that I spoke spanish, and then the "well we can tell she's not white" comments. By the time I was in my early 2o's the comments that were made to my brother (who is also adopted) finally surfaced to a face to face conversation with again the question of "what are you", when I then return with yet another question "does it matter?" Is it not bad enough to be classified by race and gender but to then to be categorized by dissability, and then as the gawkers and gapers continue to glare, deciding in their own minds of what the parents did or who did what wrong for that person to have ended up that way. The main similarity among all three, are that nobody every seems to get it right. What is "it"? It can be a number of things, it can refer to gender, race, ethnicity, religion, or even nationality. Instead the others, who are making there own perceptions, are too busy thinking up silly names to call them, rather than thinking of ways to stop the ignorance. Just because someone doesn't look the same, dress the same, walk the same, doesn't make them an outcast. I believe that is why America is so unique, for the different types of people, and traditions and cultures that we have. If everyone looked the same we would all be stuck in the avatar movie.