Throughout history, humans have always been on the move. For thousands of years they have been transported from one place to another, crossing geographical and cultural boundaries. The motivations and reasons for this widespread mobility are innumerable; vary from person to person and group to group. Some travel out of curiosity, to explore new places. Others emigrate to foreign lands in search of a new home. Still others are forced into exile. Although everyone's individual experience of migration is different, there is a common element, a shared experience, that can be widely observed. This is the fact that migration and border crossing often have an effect on one's identity. A person's identity is a complex, multi-layered combination of things that defines who that person is. It includes the concept of self and home and a more general sense of belonging. Identities are subject to change as a person experiences major changes in their life. Therefore, it stands to reason that mobility and migration have, throughout history, disrupted the way people see themselves. Many historical texts from around the world illustrate this central concept, the idea that prolonged displacement and resettlement have a profound effect on a person's identity. A text that demonstrates how movement across borders can have a great impact on one's identity is the story of the Odyssey, composed by Homer. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The events of the Greek epic take place twenty years after the character Odysseus left his home to cross the Mediterranean Sea and fight in the Trojan War. From the beginning of the story it is clear that, after twenty years away from home, Odysseus is no longer the same man he was when he left Ithaca. Aside from the inevitable and natural aging that has occurred, Ulysses' sense of self and identity have changed. Twenty years earlier, when he still resided in his home in Ithaca, Odysseus was a powerful figure. He was the revered king of Ithaca. He was a husband and a father, the master of his family. He was a widely respected warrior with many friends and allies. Twenty years later, across the sea that separates him from his homeland, Ulysses finds himself in a very different position, in which he has been rendered practically helpless. In isolation, without his friends, his family, or a vast supply of resources at his disposal, he finds himself helpless, vulnerable to the whims of the gods. This helplessness has taken a toll on Ulysses, who has lost the confidence he once had, and now spends his days sobbing in pain. The narrator describes Odysseus' misery: “His eyes were always full of tears; he cried away the sweet life, longing to return home... By day he sat on the rocky shore, in tears and sorrow, gazing sorrowfully at the fruitless sea.” In this epic, Odysseus's long resettlement across the barrier of the Mediterranean Sea has such a great impact on his sense of self because his identity has always revolved around his roles in positions of power: as king, patriarch, and warrior. In his current situation, he is unable to fulfill those roles, and therefore feels lost in his identity. For Odysseus, the only way to reestablish his identity is to cross the sea that divides him, return home, and regain power, even if it means rejecting an offer of immortality in the process. Another historical text that shows the profound way in which relocation disrupts identity is the Exeter Book, which contains a collection of Old English elegies. One of these poems, TheWanderer, describes the sorrows of a warrior in exile. As the elegy progresses, it becomes apparent that the subject has undergone a major transformation of his identity over the course of his life. The traveler's thoughts reveal glimpses of his youthful, lively and joyful days spent next to his lord and his relatives. As the poem explains, "He remembers the salt holders and the treasurers, how in his youth his gold-giving lord had accustomed him to the feast... it seems in his mind that he embraces and kisses his lord of men, and on his knees lays his hands and head, as he sometimes, long ago, enjoyed the throne of the gift.” However, those days are long gone. In later years, it seems that the warrior has lost all his companions to the war and other causes of death, and was forced to leave his homeland, across the sea and into exile. Now he wanders alone in a foreign land, completely isolated from other humans. It is clear that this displacement has had a profound effect impact on the subject's sense of self. The man, once a brave and loyal warrior, is now a friendless wanderer, consumed by grief and longing, who spends his days in deep contemplation and introspection. In the poem he reflects on wisdom , on the transience and instability of the earth. The phrases the wanderer uses to describe himself, such as a “winter-bound spirit” and a “miserable exile,” are particularly indicative of the changes in his conception of self and identity that have occurred as a result of his movement in isolation. A final text that presents a change in identity resulting from migration is the writing of Ezekiel from the Hebrew Bible. At the time of the events that occurred in the Scriptures, King Jehoiachin and the Judean elite were exiled from Judah by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. This forced departure from Jerusalem is a very significant event because the city is not only their home, but it is also the center of their religion. The Jewish people believe that the Temple in Jerusalem is the permanent home of God, meaning that all spiritual connections with God and Jewish identity itself revolve around the Temple. As a result, the Jews involuntarily resettled in Babylon face a difficult situation. Ultimately, their migration out of the land of Israel requires the Judean exiles to modify their conception of Jewish identity so that they can maintain their faith in their new circumstances. One of the exiles, a prophet named Ezekiel, is instrumental in allowing this change in traditional beliefs to occur. As he describes in his writings, in the fifth year of the exile, Ezekiel receives visions and the word of God despite being outside Israel, in Babylon. He explains: “In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was in the community of exiles at the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth of the month – it was the fifth year of the deportation of King Jehoiachin – the word of the Lord came to the priest Ezekiel, son of Buzi, near the Chebar canal, in the land of the Chaldeans. And there the hand of the Lord came upon him." Seven days later, he is visited by God once again: “I arose and went out into the valley, and there the Presence of the Lord was presented, like the Presence I had seen at the Chebar Canal; and I fell face down on the ground." After receiving the word of God and visions of what appears to be a divine chariot, Ezekiel delivers his prophecies to the other exiles. Ezekiel explains to the Jews that the divine Presence has left the Temple of Jerusalem and is traveling. These revelations from the prophet are critical in the exile community's process of reshaping their beliefs about Judaism in a way that allows them to bring,.