The Son of Jesus by Denis Johnson and Identity and Intercultural Communication by Judith Martin and Thomas Nakayama are both concerned with identity and the effect it can have on the way someone's life ends. While Jesus' Son is a book of stories about a character, Identity and Intercultural Communication is an essay on how identity is created and how it defines us. Using these texts together reveals a deeper meaning in the Son of Jesus and shows how being accepted by society or cast aside can have a great impact on how we identify and how others identify us. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayBoth the authors of Jesus' Son and Identity and Intercultural Communication would agree that identity can cause people to slip through the cracks. The narrator of the Son of Jesus is an outlaw. He commits crimes, doesn't have much of a moral basis, and uses a lot of drugs. One reason is his feeling of belonging nowhere within society. Toward the end of the novel, he works at a care center for the disabled and reflects that he “never even imagined for the blink of an eye that there might be a place for people like us” (Johnson 133). Since this comes at the end of the book, it shows that in the rest of the novel he had not felt like he had a “place” to call his own. Both works address how identity develops due to how someone is perceived by society. Identity plays an important role in making people feel like they have a place to call their own. Identity and Intercultural Communication offers insight into the vast world of identities. In many cases people can be pigeonholed into identities and classified based on “our background and society [which] influences how and what we see and, more importantly, what it means” (Martin and Nakayama 319); the speaker in Jesus' Son was partially trapped in a "box" of outlaws classified by those around him. Identity and Intercultural Communications provide insights and a way for the narrator to talk in terms of identity. The places we grow up and the people we hang out with can have a big impact on how we identify and how others identify us. The use of both texts gives deeper meaning to the identity of the narrator of the Son of Jesus. The Son of Jesus tells many stories of a man who does not fit in. In many stories he doesn't seem to care about himself or the people around him. He doesn't create strong bonds and his friends seem to come and go throughout the text. The narrator spends a lot of time near the end of the novel looking out the window of an Amish family's home. At first he watches to see his wife in the shower, but begins to become fascinated by their lifestyle and watches more and more. This image of a man on the outside looking at a “normal” life is powerful. He is interested and fascinated by their life because it is so different from his and he does not identify with it. The way the narrator identifies himself is completely different from that of the couple. Identity and Intercultural Communication explains how identities are formed and seen. Identity is an important aspect of communication, “identity plays a key role in intercultural communication, acting as a bridge between culture and communication. It is through communication with our family, friends, and others (sometimes people from other cultures) that we come to understand ourselves and our identity” (Martin and Nakayama 316). It can be difficult for the narrator of the Son of Jesus to communicate with others because he does not know his own.