It can be said that the majority of all significant characters in a literary work have an identity, which is developed in order to convey the author's message. Giving an individual an identity enables it to 'talk' to the reader.

         It can be said that the majority of all significant characters in a literary work have an identity, which is developed in order to convey the author’s message. Giving an individual an identity enables it to ‘talk’ to the reader. Therefore, we can see that a character with a personal identity is significant in a literary work, and does not merely coexist with other characters in a literary work. This aspect of personal identity is brought out in Milan Kundera’s Identity and in Tim O’ Brien’s The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong in ‘The Things They Carried’. The loss / gain of personal identity seems to be the common theme in both texts. The character of Chantal in Kundera’s Identity loses her individuality due to social conformity and the character of Mary Anne gains her identity, which was also lost due to social conformity. Though both texts deal with the issue regarding one’s personal identity, they differ in terms of the flow direction in loss / gain of identity. In Identity, Chantal loses her identity and then regains it later on. But in The Things They Carried, Mary Anne finds her lost identity.  

        In Milan Kundera’s Identity, it can be seen that Chantal has her individuality at the beginning of the dream. “Tongues licking each other had always disgusted her”. Chantal can be said to be unique because of her expressed disgust towards French kissing. And Jean Marc’ s reaction to this unique characteristic is quite normal and he accepts it. In chapter 14 we are given a glimpse of Chantal’s inner thoughts. “…She wanted to be a Rose Fragrance, a pervasive, overwhelming fragrance, she wanted to move thus through all men and, by way of the men, to embrace the entire world”. Milan Kundera uses the Rose as a metaphor because it draws an image in crimson in the reader’s mind. The colour, crimson can be described as a colour, which is capable of contrasting significantly from other colours. The result of using technique of symbolism is that it conveys the idea of Chantal’s personality contrasting significantly from others in society. This personality can be seen as unique and therefore it contributed towards making Chantal an individual. Then we are given an image, which promotes a blinding whiteness. “She retains the intense memory of whiteness: the deck, the tables, the chairs, the tablecloths, everything was white, the lampposts were painted white and the bulbs beamed a white light against the summer sky, not yet dark, where the moon, itself white too, was whitening everything around them”. The colour, white can be described as a colour, which is uniform. Milan Kundera uses the colour white in order to symbolize the loss of individuality because white has the effect of ‘drowning’ other colours. “She relished the utter absence of adventures. Adventure: a means of embracing the world. She no longer wanted the world. She relished the happiness of being adventure less and without desire for adventures. She recalled her metaphor and saw a Rose withering, rapidly as in a time-lapse film until all that was left of it was a skinny blackish twig, and disappearing forever in the white universe of their evening: the Rose diluted in the whiteness”. Milan Kundera uses this piece of imagery in order to convey an image of Chantal’s individuality, which was symbolized by the Rose, was destroyed by conformity, which was symbolized by the blinding white environment. We also know for a fact that Chantal is white. Therefore, it further implies the white foreground disappearing in the white background. It can be seen that Milan Kundera expresses his message regarding the loss of identity due to conformity using the colours, crimson and white. In chapter 24, we can see that Jean Marc’ s letters influence Chantal to regain her identity. “I swathe your white body in a cardinal’s crimson mantle. And then I put you, draped like that, into a red room on a red bed, my red cardinal, most gorgeous cardinal!” Here, it can be seen that it is Jean Marc who gives Chantal her individuality. “Before her half closed eyes, that red patch turns into a Rose garden, and she smells the faint fragrance nearly forgotten, the fragrance of the Rose yearning to embrace all the men in the world.” Milan Kundera again uses the Rose and crimson to symbolize individuality. When considering Milan Kundera’s message regarding the loss and gain of personal identity in Identity, It can be seen that his character of Chantal who loses her identity due to the conformities, regains her identity due to the influence of another character – Jean Marc. Milan Kundera uses this theme of the loss / gain of identity in order to show how conformities lead people to lose their identities and how the outside world contributes towards giving each other an individuality.