Because it is such a big part of the human experience, whether we are aware of it or not, a common theme in movies is one’s search for their identity. We don’t have to look very hard for examples. In fact, it may be more difficult to just name a few, but these come to mind:

Jason Bourne, in the Bourne movies, loses his memory and has to backtrack his steps to try and discover who he is—only to be faced with a pile of fake passports and the possibility that he may not like what he finds. Tris Prior in the Divergent series literally has to join a faction—a group made up of a specific type of people—to announce her identity. And in The Devil Wears Prada, Anne Hathaway’s character, Andy, has to decide if she can change who she is to get the job she wants.

The list of movies that illustrate the journey to find one’s identity are many, but my favorite one is Les Miserables. Set in the time of the French Revolution, where many had to beg or steal food to survive, we meet a man named Jean Valjean. The movie opens up just as he is being released from prison. Years before he had stolen a loaf of bread to feed his starving nephew. He had never been a thief before, but he was desperate. Nonetheless, he was caught and arrested.

As he is leaving prison, the police sergeant gives him a piece of paper stating that he is a criminal and instructs him that wherever he goes, he must register with the town so everyone knows he is a thief. The movie goes on to show him being denied employment, food, and shelter—until finally a priest welcomes him into his home. He feeds him and gives him a bed to sleep in. But by this point Jean Valjean believes the worst of himself and doesn’t know if he can trust the priest.

So, in the middle of the night, he steals the priest’s silver and runs away. Later that day, he is caught and he tells the police that the priest gave him the silver. Not believing him, they take him back to the priest’s house to verify his story. But the priest surprises them all—he says, yes he gave Jean Valjean the silver, but he forgot to take the candlesticks too.

The soldiers leave, and the priest tells Jean Valjean that he has ransomed him with the silver—that he can now become the good man God created him to be. Jean Valjean does, but he changes his name, so that he no longer has to live under the label of being a thief. Only he spends years looking over his shoulder, afraid his true identity will be found out.

There always seems to be a level of fear when it comes to truly being ourselves. Whether we have done something bad and we’re afraid other’s will reject us over it, or we’re too afraid people won’t like us to show our full selves—fear can be our most powerful influence. Whispering to us that we aren’t good enough, that people won’t like us if they saw the real us, or that we could never be forgiven for what we’ve done, fear has a way of making us live small.

Not only that, fear has a way of keeping us from truly discovering our full selves. It tells us the things we want to try are too hard. It warns that we will never be any good, anyway. And it cripples us with the possibility of failure. Like telling us not to go outside when it’s raining because we will get wet—when going outside is the only way we will ever see a rainbow—fear makes us miss the good things, by avoiding the hard things.

By changing his name, Jean Valjean was unable to embrace all of who he was—the good and the bad. He could not live freely. He could not let anyone get close to him—and when he did, that person was forced into hiding as well. Not being himself didn’t just affect him—it affected the whole world around him. And when he finally announced his true identity, he wasn’t the only person set free. Others were set free as well.

Trying to discover and/or embrace all that makes me, me—and you, you—is not easy. With it comes all kinds of fears and hesitations. But if we can learn anything from the story of Jean Valjean, it is that when we seek to overcome these things, not only do we find the freedom to be ourselves, but we make a way for those around us to be free as well.

What fears keep you from being yourself?

What fears hold you back from discovering more about who you are?

 

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