A Frameless Life

When I think of the word frames, I think of a four sided structure that holds a picture in place, but I am not referring to that type of frame.   I am referring to the “mental structures that shape the way we see the world” (Lakeoff, quoted in Burton, Artist of the Floating World, p. 61).  These frames are either inherited biologically or culturally throughout someone’s life.  We develop a sense of self worth with nationality, religion, family, income, race, and gender. Without the structure of frames, we would be lacking a sense of self worth, morals, love, money, and “As a result they shape the goals we seek, the plans we make, the way we act” 

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            But what if someone is born into a life that is without the structure of frames?  Bessie Head, the South African writer who was born into a life that was without frames.  “She was born out of wedlock, the result of a then-illicit union between the daughter of a prominent landowning family of Scottish descent and a black stable-hand, she was not recognized as an enfranchised individual by the South African state she was born into.”  With no guiding frame or reference, she longed throughout her life for a sense of belonging with non-identification. Bessie once said, “I just don’t fit in and belong anywhere and I tend to pride myself on not fitting in or belonging.” In Bessie Head’s first novel, A Question of Power, she longs for a sense of belonging. As she strives for frames in her life, she creates images or visions, in which help fill the voids in her life.  “Despite, or perhaps because of, the polarized nature of her life, she was able to produce a body of creative work that has continued to gain critical attention and that challenges critics in how to define and categorize her and her literary output.”

         Throughout my life, I feel as if my religion, family and nationality have helped create my frame. Without my religion, Catholicism, I wouldn’t have the high morals that I portray today.  Being Catholic, and having a close bond with God, has definitely shaped the person I am today by knowing the difference between right and wrong.  My family has always been there for me, without family, I wouldn’t know the love that siblings and parents have each other.  My nationality always and will identify who I am.  Anywhere I go, I can be identified as my Jido’s grand-daughter, because I am Lebanese. It identifies, what I look like, and what color my skin is.

         However, just like Bessie Head, I did once feel unidentified.  On September 11, 2001 a Middle Eastern country committed a terrorist attack on the United States.  After that attack, Americans started to judge anyone who was of the Muslim faith or could be identified as Middle Eastern.  It was as if I was afraid to claim my religion, and declare that my nationality was the structure of my frame. American’s started not accepting me for my nationality, and continuously judging me for mistakes that were not in my control.

       I don’t think I can truly say that I know what it feels like to be frameless. I have created a frame that helped shape and identify the person I am today.  Bessie Head, has yet to shape her frame, because she was never introduced such things as race, nationality, income, love, and family.  Bessie can only keep striving to fulfill the empty picture in her life.