Life "frames" are unavoidable

Are you a wealthy white businessman born in New York City or a transferred student from India? Are you one of the ten children living in a village in Mexico or one of the thousands employees working in a factory in China?

Regardless of who you are your nationality, race, religion and gender influence your life in a profound way. The environment in which you are born and raised provides “a particular set of metaphorical lenses” through which you are conditioned to perceive this world (Burton, 62).  When you are young you don’t even know that you are being submerged into a certain frame that will put a great impact on your life whether you want it or not.  The country you are born in, the parents that take care of you, the school that you go to, the church that you belong to are all little puzzle pieces of your identity that have a dramatic influence on your personality and life.  A starving mother of seven in Africa will have a different vision and understanding of the world than a Hollywood movie star living in Beverly Hills. The circumstances of your birth and upbringing predispose the way “you see and interact with the world”, brand you with a certain frame that no matter how hard you try to get rid of it, it is always going to haunt you and affect your destiny (Burton, 62).  It is always going to remain with you like a greasy stain on a beautiful dress. It might fade with time if you wash and bleach it hard, but people will always be able to notice it in the sunlight…

There are a lot of people all over the world, white, Hispanic, rich and poor, Christians and Catholics, who suffer the circumstances of the frames they were born into and hopelessly dedicate their whole lives trying to erase them.  The life narrative of a famous South African writer Bessie Head is a vivid example of that.  She was born in a mental institution out of wedlock which was then a “result of illicit union” between the daughter of a well-known landowning family and a “black stable-hand”( Burton, 63).  Because of that “she was not recognized as an enfranchised individual by the South African state” as sexual unions between whites and non-whites were prohibited by legislative law (Burton, 63). Her whole life she struggled to find her identity and felt like she “just didn’t fit in and belong anywhere” (Burton, 63). Never being accepted by her native country she went into exile in Botswana, where she was a refugee for thirteen years.  She never knew her parents and spent her whole life attempting to find her place in the world. It must be a horrible feeling to have never had a chance to meet your parents. It must be a sad feeling to have never been read a book by your mom, to have never played in the yard with your dad. It must be an awful feeling to know that you are half-white, half-black; half-citizen, half-homeless. What a dreadful feeling to know that you are only a half.

Bessie Head wrote in her autobiographical writings “A Woman Alone”: “I have always been just me, with no frame of reference to anything beyond myself.” (Burton,  64). Yes, Bessie had a difficult and depressing life with no sense of past or heritage, but I would disagree with her claim that she didn’t have a frame.  I think all people in the world are born with frames. The nationality, race and religion of their parents create a particular frame for a child the minute it is born.  Her frame was determined by the fact that she was a mulatto, the result of illegitimate sexual union, that she was prohibited to vote and wasn’t accepted as an individual with legal state rights in South Africa. That was her frame which influenced her life drastically and caused so many sufferings.  When she says that she has “no frame of reference to anything beyond “ herself, I think she mainly means that she has no relative roots and no orientation towards her genetic  past which in my mind is very important in order to find your true self . Undoubtedly, Bessie Head had a frame and her depressing life was the product of that frame.  

There is no question about the fact that we all belong to certain frames, but we only become aware of them when we get the reaction of surrounding people or society on our frame. Only when we start to be treated in a certain way by society and receive the reaction of people regarding our upbringing or nationality do we become aware of who we really are and how we are perceived in the community.  We don’t really recognize our frame until the society expresses its views on it and gives us the verdict.  The main character of Bessie Head’s novel “A Question of Power” Elizabeth is not really familiar with her frame until she is informed that her mother was insane. She doesn’t really know who she is till the society judges her and forces her to react and behave according to her frame.  Society is cruel and once it agrees that your frame is wrong there is no mercy to be expected.  Elizabeth strongly feels the burden of her frame when she is unjustly punished by the principal at the mission school. Other children don’t get punished for doing the same things that Elizabeth is doing, but she is judged by the society because her frame is marked as bad and you can’t anticipate a better treatment.  One injustice will be followed by another till you are erased from the public, till you are banned and banished from the tribe.

Yes, your life can be ruined or praised according to your frame. You can be a ruler or a misfit; you can decide or obey. You can always try to erase, ignore or forget your frame, but it will always stay with you. A greasy stain on a beautiful dress, no matter how hard you try to wash it off, will always be noticeable in the sunlight…