Frame or Frameless

What is a frame? It is the structure that supports a building.  It is the members used to set boundaries and boarders to encompass a masterpiece.  Our frame is what shapes our lives, and defines who we are.  It is our family, religion, race, and nationality.  It guides our thoughts and directs our actions.  Our fame is also our comfort zone.  Those people who have a similar frame usually stick together.  It is the first impression, and the last impression. 

In my life, I have always been very comfortable of knowing who I am and where I came from.  It gives me security, and a place to belong.  But is it possible to live life without a frame?  Does anyone feel that they don’t belong because they can’t understand their past or their present? In the book A Question of Power by Bessie Head, the main character (also Bessie Head) expresses the feeling of living a frameless life.  She was abandoned by her parents at birth because they were not allowed to keep her.  She was later rejected by her adopted parents because she was too dark.  Bessie never fit in anywhere, and she doesn’t know where she came from to discover who she is.  As Bessie becomes a teenager, she feels the need to take pride in herself.  Bessie Says in Burton’s Book, “I just don’t fit in and belong anywhere and I tend to pride myself on not fitting in or belonging” (Burton 63). She notices her weakness of her frameless life, and uses it to build her self esteem.

Is our frame only defined by our past, or can it take on different forms?  I think that for the most of us, who we are is based on where we came from.  However, Burton states in his book that “many of us grow up without realizing (or without being given a chance to realize) that the frames we were born into are, in fact, ideological constructions” (62).  Because our frames were built upon social ideologies and not genetics, there is an ability to change, and create an individual frame that fits no one but you.  For Bessie, she is starting with a fresh drawing board.  The path that she takes and the outlook she has on life redefines her frameless life, and transforms it into a frame that only fits her.