How do you think the past can shape our identity?

I know in the novel catcher in the rye, Holden loses his little brother and later in his teenage years questions his role in the world and where he belongs. But i dont understand how can just by losing someone you love unable you to know who you are.

Another example is why do war veterans come back home with a changed personality and perspective?How do you think the past can shape our identity?
Okay well for starters, it's not just one event that shapes our identity. I doubt that Holden questioned his role and where he belongs just because of the loss of his brother. I've never read it, so I don't know what else happens, but one event doesn't completely shape our identity. So many things are factors in shaping our identity. The people in our lives, the way they raised us, the beliefs/values etc we were raised with, the events in our lives. Everything has an impact on the way our identities shape.

But, I will say this. Some people are so deeply connected with others that losing them feels like they've lost themselves. I already wonder who I am at times, but there are people I love that if I lost them, I don't know what I would be without them. I feel like they are so much of me, so much of what makes me who I am, that losing them would be losing myself too. So I can understand how a person could question that after losing someone they love dearly.



Let me ask you something. If you were sent away from your family to another country, forced to shoot, stab, and kill other people, forced to witness people dying every day, forced to see children being killed by bombs going off, would that change your perspective and personality? Would that make you think or feel differently? Of course it would. You've killed other people. You've seen people running and screaming in the street, covered in blood, one arm missing. You've seen mothers holding their dead children in their arms, tears streaming down their cheeks. You've seen children crying over their dead parents bodies. Things like that change a person forever. How can they not?



(I hope that last bit didn't sound bitchy, sorry if it did, it's not meant to.)How do you think the past can shape our identity?
When something in our past goes it can shape your future by helping to make you stronger or more determined. It can help you deal with circumstances you couldn't handle back then or of course handle them differently. None of us have a crystal ball for the future, wish I had but then we develop as people by learning.



Good luck x