Man is only smart if he is able to shed his identity.

The title is a line said by the character Ruchaleh in Sayed Kashua’s book, Second Person Singular. As a liberal secular white Israeli professor, Ruchaleh is anti-Nationalist, anti-religion, and anti-tradition. She also has the privilege to express her views in Israeli society as a white, educated woman of Ashkenazi descent. No matter how much her quote oozes with irony, it does touch upon a significant theme omnipresent through the book — identity and how two Arab men must reconcile their identities wherever they go. The book points out the issues and benefits of being an Arab. It also reinforces but also destroys stereotypes. For example, Amir, the Arab social worker whose experience Kashua writes in the first person, steals an Israeli man’s identity to get a job as a waiter. He maintains “Yonatan,” the Israeli man's name, even when applying to art school, where it is widespread knowledge that the school gives the minority Arabs certain privileges. We learn from this example that even after receiving compensation for their oppression, negative dehumanizing stereotypes about Arabs are still validated. For this reason, Amir remains outwardly Israeli to fit in at art school and avoid being stereotyped. While he may change his outward appearance, Amir always stays true to himself, likely due to his unconventional upbringing by his single Arab mother.

On the other hand, the second main character simply called The Lawyer, reconciles his identity as an Arab in a totally different way. Ever aware of his public image, the Lawyer has choreographed his life to look respectable and perfect in the eyes of Israelis, his Arab parents, his clients, and friends. He respects the wishes of his traditional parents by becoming a lawyer, desperately verses himself in western culture, and even selects his wife, car, and neighborhood to further his law business. However, after finding a note written by his wife to another man, the lawyer’s entire identity is jeopardized. A piece of evidence that may imply infidelity shakes the lawyer to his very core. His strict conservative values wrestle with his liberal, educated outward appearance. For some reason, he is not comfortable thinking about his wife having a different boyfriend before him.

If anything, these two personal accounts work to demonstrate how society: its traditions, religions, politics and cultural flows may disrupt an individual’s sense of identity. In a specific group, there is such a range of identity. This realization has a unifying effect. However, we often ignore the universal and obsess over our differences. For the time being, it is best to know when and where to shed one’s identity.