The Son of Jesus by Denis Johnson and Identity and Intercultural Communication by Judith Martin and Thomas Nakayama both focus on identity and the effect that it can have on the way a person's life unfolds. While The Son of Jesus is a book of short 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 kicked to the curb can have a big impact on how we identify ourselves and how we by which others identify us. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Both authors of Son of Jesus and Identity and Intercultural Communication would agree that identity can cause people to fall through the cracks. The narrator of The Son of Jesus is an outlaw. He commits crimes, doesn't have much moral foundation, and uses a lot of drugs. One of the reasons for this is his feeling of not belonging to any society. Towards the end of the novel, he works in a care center for people with disabilities and he reflects that he “never even imagined that there could 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 didn't feel like he had a "place" of his own. Both works address how identity develops due to society and how someone is perceived. Identity plays an important role in people feeling like they have a place of their own. Identity and Intercultural Communication provides insight into the vast world of identities. In many cases, people can be pigeonholed into identities and categorized based on "our backgrounds and society [which] influences how and what we see, and most importantly, what it means" (Martin and Nakayama 319); the Son of Jesus speaker was partially trapped in an outlaw “bin” categorized by those around him. Identity and Intercultural Communications provides insight and a way of talking about the narrator in terms of identity. The places we grow up and the people we associate with can have a big impact on how we identify ourselves and how others identify us. The use of both texts gives a deeper meaning to the identity of the narrator of Jesus' Son. The Son of Jesus tells many stories of a man who did not fit in. In many stories, it seems like he doesn't care about himself or the people around him. He doesn't make strong connections 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 looks over to see his wife in the shower, but he begins to become fascinated by their lifestyle and looks more and more. This image of an outsider looking at a “normal” life is powerful. He is interested and fascinated by their lives because it is so different from his and he does not relate to it. The way the narrator identifies himself is completely different from the couple. Identity and Intercultural Communication explains how identities are formed and perceived. Identity is an important aspect of communication, “identity plays a key role in intercultural communication, serving as a bridge between culture and communication. It is through communication with our family, friends and others (sometimes people.