Villain to Antihero

Abstract

Identity and reality are socially constructed and maintained by both the individual and society. A primary way this occurs is through a process where people adjust their behaviors to meet the expectations of those around them and fit into an assigned place in life. People are not the sole creators of their destinies or their identities. Instead, their choices and how they develop identity are accomplished through social structures, interactions with others, and language used. Whenever people experience an event that damages their identity—like a history of substance abuse—they have difficulty redeeming themself and restoring their reality primarily because society is reluctant to let the person move past the injured or addicted identity. The author utilizes autoethnography and the idea of the antihero to show the social process where a spoiled identity can be reinterpreted into a new one. The article relies on dramaturgical analysis and the concept of social construction of reality, world-building, and world-maintaining. The author explores how his struggle with alcohol and subsequent religious conversion to Evangelical Christianity helped him establish a new identity, interpret previous mistakes, and build supportive connections. This study is significant because it emphasizes the sociological aspects of identity creation and restoration instead of individual ones.