Personal Identity Week 1

Over the past couple of weeks we have discussed personal identity. Within those weeks we have seen movies that display these lessons in different ways. One example of this is the movie Catfish. In this movie, Ariel and Henry were filming a documentary about Nev. However, another story was starting to unfold when Nev starts interacting with a family from Ishpeming, Michigan. He starts sending pictures to a girl named Abby, who we thought was a talented painter. He then starts interacting with her mother Angela and older sister Megan. After months of talking to her, something happens during their Facebook chat that makes Nev suspicious. When Megan told Nev that she was a singer, Nev wanted hear her sing. Megan would send him songs that were supposedly recorded by her. However, when Nev looks up the songs on YouTube, he notices the songs sounded exactly the same, except the person singing it was Megan. This was the moment that made Nev wonder, "what else has she been lying to me about?" As the story unfolds, we find out that Megan wasn't even a real person. She was someone made up by Abby's mother, Angela. Throughout the movie, it is revealed that Angela has a community of made up Facebook accounts. The reason why is because she doesn't enjoys her real life in Michigan. In reality, she is constantly taking care of her husband's sons, while the husband doesn't really do anything. She isn't happy with the life she's living so she makes up a fake life on Facebook. However, after spending time with Nev, she realizes that she could still do what she loves which is painting. The movie ends with Angela pursuing her career and a scene of her husbanding talking about catfish.

The movie showed how one person is different from the other. Angela had different versions of herself displayed through Megan and even Abby. Abby was made up to be a painter, but it was really Angela, more specifically "Angela the Painter." Megan displayed Angela and how she sees herself on the inside. At least that's my view on it.