Personal Appearance And Personal Identity

Adolescence is a time at which people from all places and cultures struggle to form their own identity. No longer children, but not yet adults, they must forge their sense of self and come to terms with the image they project to others. For young girls in particular, self identity and image is often closely associated with physical appearance. “Blue Gold” and “ Does My Head Look Big In This?” are both coming of age stories in which young girls from different places and cultures struggle to form their own identities, and in each of the stories physical appearance and clothing play an important part in the girls’ journeys towards self affirmation.

“Blue Gold” is a three part story which confronts the issues surrounding the technology industry through the stories of three girls from very different cultures in living in very different circumstances in different places around the world. Each girl must try to find her sense of self and make a place for herself in society. “Does My Head Look Big In This?” is the story of an Australian-Palestinian-Muslim girl and her journey towards self discovery. She must reconcile her Palestinian Muslim heritage within her place in secular Australian culture. A shared theme between these two books is that physical appearance and dress are central to self identity and image.

In “Blue Gold” Elizabeth Stewart uses Laiping’s uniform to show her loss of self identity and freedom. Laiping is a Chinese factory worker, the factory uniform, identical to thousands of others, demonstrates Laiping’s insignificance in the eyes of the company that controls her. Her uniform strips her of her personal identity and transforms her into “just a factory girl, like a hundred thousand others.” Laiping loses all sense of self and self empowerment. The idea, of clothing having the power to take away identity as well as display it, is also prevalent in ‘Does My Head Look Big In This?’ Once Amal starts to wear the hijab, people perceive her differently; “Too many people look at it as though it (the hijab) has bizarre powers sewn into its microfibers. Powers that transform Muslim girls into UCOs (Unidentified Covered Objects), which turn Muslim girls from an 'us' to a 'them.” When Amal dons the hijab people view her not as herself but as a Muslim, they ignore her character and focus her religion alone. To Amal this is not the way the hijab should be viewed. To her it is a symbol of her religion of which she is justly proud, it is not meant to strip her of identity but help project it. Throughout the story, Amal meets many people who are weary of Islam and who see the hijab as the single most important thing about her. However fortunately Amal also meets people who understand that the hijab is simply a symbol of her religion, an important part of her identity but not her sole defining characteristic.

In “Blue Gold” the story of Sylvie, a Congolese girl who is trapped in a refugee camp in Tanzania, is closely linked to her personal appearance and dress.The main focus of her story is her impending forced marriage to a ruthless warlord named Kayembe. Kayembe wants to marry her because she is pretty, he has no interest in her character or values. He views her as an attractive chatel. On the day of her wedding she is forced to wear a dress chosen by Kayembe.The dress is described as being too long and having “wires in it to shape a woman’s bosom.” Clearly Sylvie is being forced into womanhood too early, she is entirely under Kayembe’s control, her identity and self empowerment are being stripped away and the wedding dress is a powerful symbol of this . Conversely while many people in Amal’s story assume that the hijab is a symbol of oppression and that she was forced into wearing it, when this is definitely not the case. The hijab is an integral part of Amal’s self identity and image. Amal chooses to wear the hijab without any pressure from her parents. She does so because she is proud to be a muslim woman, to her the hijab demonstrates her identity and self empowerment.

In “ Blue Gold” Fiona’s story is one which concerns body image as part of a young girl’s self perception and identity, which can be connected to one of Amal’s friends, Simone. Fiona’s world comes crashing down around her as a topless photo that she foolishly sent to her boyfriend is released onto the internet. She is bombarded by unwanted comments from her peers, as well as people she has never met. She loses confidence in herself and her body. The lack of clothing in the photo is not only a plot point, it is a symbol for her vulnerability. In “Does My Head Look Big In This?”, Amal’s best friend Simone also struggles with body image. Poisonous barbs from her mother and judgmental comments directed at her by other students lead Simone to loathe her own body. She tries desperately to lose weight and to achieve a perfect and unattainable figure. It takes the kindness and love of her friends to convince Simone that she is beautiful no matter what she weighs, just as it takes the love and understanding of her mother, teachers and friends to help Fiona regain her confidence and self identity.

Physical appearance and dress contribute to the way we see ourselves and others. The authors of both books understand this and harness the concept in the development of their characters and storylines.“Does My Head Look Big In This?” takes a very overt position with the clothing being a central theme of the book whilst “Blue Gold” weaves the symbolism of clothing (and even the absence of clothing) into the underlying stories.”Does My Head Look Big In This?” forces the reader to confront the issue of clothing and question whether clothes make a person or whether they are merely another layer of the character's identity. In Blue Gold, however, the theme of physical appearance and dress was largely understated however when focussed upon was both powerful, intended and well considered.

The Importance Of Acceptance

Both Elizabeth Stewart’s ‘Blue Gold’ and Gordon Korman’s ‘Ungifted’ feature a similar concept of trying to fit in as in both books, the main characters are constantly trying to integrate themselves within groups and wanting to be accepted. For instance, in “Blue Gold,” each of the girls want to be part of something bigger, such as Lai Ping, who attempts to distinguish herself from other village workers. Similarly, in “Ungifted,” both Donovan and the academy children attempt to immerse themselves into their respective groups. This evokes the idea of how acceptance is important and the lengths people can go to in order to be accepted. 

At the beginning of the book, Lai Ping is shown to be a girl who came from a village seeking a job at a factory to earn money for her ill father. After arriving at the factory, Lai Ping is introduced to Kai, who informs her about the things she needed to know about the factory. Although slightly suspicious, Lai Ping attempted to strike a conversation with Kai before he was chased away by the guards. After the incident, Lai Ping is called a “Stupid hick,” by an older girl, which she realises that standing out was dangerous. Subsequently, Lai Ping became more cautious as she tried to stay in line despite her monotonous work. Some might argue that this was a result of Lai ping being scared of losing her job, but evidence suggests that she became much less daring following the events of Kai’s first appearance. Following this, in Ungifted, Donovan is cautious when interacting with the students of Hardcastle as he fears them denoting him as an outcast.

Further into the book, after being discriminated by her schoolmates, Fiona is seen to be constantly trying to move past her photo incident and restore her former image. Some might argue that this was an attempt of desperation as she became more aggressive towards those who were concerned for her. But evidence points towards her wanting to be accepted again, which is seen further in the book, where Fiona uses people with similar stories such as Lai Ping and Sylvie to get her peers to move past the situation with sympathy. Similarly, Donovan wants his peers to understand that he is gifted in regions other than academically, in an attempt to distract them, he uses different techniques to make them forget about him being different.

Fitting into groups is important for people as being shunned as an outcast for being known as different can really have an impact on people, making them feel isolated and unwanted. Blue Gold and Ungifted address these problems and depict how certain people react to these situations, as well as show how their ideas develop and change throughout.